Portugal’s Dec inflation falls to 1.4%

LISBON  – Portuguese 12-month inflation rate slowed down slightly to 1.4 percent in December, down from 1.5 percent a month earlier, as food prices fell, flash data from the National Statistics Institute (INE) showed on Friday.

Core inflation, which strips out volatile food and energy prices and is seen as a better gauge of the underlying trend, was at 2.6 percent year-on-year, down from 2.9 percent in November.

Still, the 2023 annual average inflation rate was 4.3 percent, after 7.8 percent in 2022.

Inflation has been steadily coming down after peaking at 10.1 percent year-on-year in October 2022.

On a monthly basis, consumer prices fell 0.5 percent in December.