The PSD on Friday viewed the rise in inflation as “a drama” that mainly affects lower-income Portuguese and the middle class and accused the government of not having the courage to take on the difficulties, unlike Mário Soares.
Duarte Pacheco reacted in parliament to data from the National Statistics Institute (INE) indicating that the year-over-year rate of change in the consumer price index (CPI) rose to 10.2% in October, compared to 9.28% in September . reached its maximum since May 1992.
“We have not known anything like this for twenty years and the government, the Minister of Finance, acknowledged in this debate that the national budget has no measures to ensure that people do not lose all purchasing power,” he criticized.
The PSD deputy believed that both public and private sector workers will lose purchasing power, and warned that even social support would not be adjusted to the rate of inflation.
Duarte Pacheco even made a comparison between the current PS government led by António Costa and the central bloc led by Mário Soares, between 1983 and 1985, noting that there was “a great finance minister who brought the country from bankruptcy.” has saved”, referring to Ernani Lopen.
“It gave civil servants a 10% increase, but inflation was 29%. In practice people lost 20% of their salary, it’s something similar to what we experience, with one difference: at the time the government took over who had difficulties and had to take that measure, now the government does not dare to admit that it is having a hard time and prefers to say that this is even a good thing for the Portuguese.
According to the quick estimate released by the Statistical Institute, “Based on the information already gathered, the year-over-year rate of change of the Consumer Price Index (CPI) will have increased to 10.2% in October, a rate higher by 0. 9 percentage points (pp) compared to the previous month and the highest since May 1992”.
The underlying inflation indicator (total index excluding unprocessed food and energy products) registered a 7.1% variation in October (6.9% in the previous month), the highest level since January 1994.
The INE estimates that the year-over-year rate of change of the energy products index was 27.6% in October (up 5.4 percentage points from the previous month), while the unprocessed food index showed a change of 18 .9% (16.9% in August), the highest percentage since June 1990.
In October, the variation in the CPI was 1.3% (1.2% in September and 0.5% in October 2021), compared to the previous month, with an estimated average change in the last 12 months of 6.7 % (6.0% in the previous month). ).
The Portuguese Harmonized Index of Consumer Prices (HICP) registered a year-on-year change of 10.7% in October, compared to 9.8% in the previous month.
The final data regarding the CPI for the month of October 2022 will be published by INE on November 11.
PS defends that it is necessary to wait for the data from the end of this year
The PS group leader defended this Friday that it is necessary to wait until the end of the year to draw better conclusions about the evolution of inflation, pointing out that this phenomenon started to have an impact in the last quarter of 2021.
This position was taken by Eurico Brilhante Dias during a press conference in parliament after he was presented with the latest data from the National Institute of Statistics (INE) on inflation in Portugal.
The year-on-year rate of change of the consumer price index (CPI) rose to 10.2% in October, from 9.28% in September, reaching its peak since May 1992.
“We will see how inflation will behave in the last months of this year. Since we are in October, the reference value does not have the last quarter of the year yet,” the chairman of the PS parliamentary group began.
Eurico Brilhante Dias went on to say that the phenomenon linked to the acceleration of inflation started before the Russian military intervention in Ukraine, in February 2022.
“It accelerated in particular in the last quarter of 2021. That’s why we have to wait until December 31 of this year and look closely at the price behavior,” he claimed.
Demand enough to raise wages and pensions in the face of rising inflation
Chega’s president, André Ventura, on Friday demanded an increase in salaries and pensions in the face of rising inflation, deeming it “almost impossible” for this indicator to stand “miraculously” at 4% next year.
Speaking to journalists, Chega’s leader insisted that “inflation outlook” [do Governo] until the end of this year were too optimistic”.
“And today we received confirmation that a record inflation rate of more than 10% is expected for the coming month, which we have not had in Portugal for decades,” noted the leader of Chega, as “this is the first sign of a bad job by the government” and warn that “it will have repercussions on several levels”.
André Ventura responded in the Assembly of the Republic to data from the National Institute of Statistics (INE) indicating that the year-on-year rate of change in the consumer price index (CPI) rose to 10.2% in October, compared to 9 , 28% in September and reached its maximum since May 1992.
Given that the finance minister had “already said that if there were a very significant change in inflation that the government would go back to updating pensions”, André Ventura defended that “the country is today demanding that this update is being implemented, as the number of forecasts for the next month is extraordinarily high, and higher than the government had expected”.
“Either the government makes another update, whether it’s civil servant salaries or pensions, or we will have an even stronger loss of purchasing power in these two segments, retirees and civil servants,” he stressed.
Chega’s president also said that “it is very hard to believe that next year’s inflation will be estimated at 4 points if inflation is close to 10% in November and December”, and expected that “the estimates are very likely also be reviewed with regard to next year’s inflation”.
“It is financially almost impossible that we have an inflation rate of 9% or 10% in November and December and, miraculously, an inflation rate of 4% or 5% next year,” he defended.
Speaking of a “financial pandemic”, André Ventura called on the government to take “rapid measures to ensure the sustainability of public accounts and access to international finance, to the markets, with the structural reforms needed” and so that “there is no loss of purchasing power even greater than expected”.
In the proposed state budget for next year, the government expects inflation to slow from 7.4% in 2022 to 4% in 2023.
According to the quick estimate released Friday by the Institute of Statistics, “based on the information already gathered, the year-over-year rate of change in the consumer price index (CPI) will have increased to 10.2% in October, a higher percentage.” than by 0.9 percentage point (pp) compared to the previous month and the highest since May 1992″.
The underlying inflation indicator (total index excluding unprocessed food and energy products) registered a 7.1% variation in October (6.9% in the previous month), the highest level since January 1994.
In October, the variation in the CPI was 1.3% (1.2% in September and 0.5% in October 2021), compared to the previous month, with an estimated average change in the last 12 months of 6.7 % (6.0% in the previous month). ).
The final data regarding the CPI for the month of October 2022 will be published by INE on November 11.
Source: DN
