Customers and vendors at the fruit market in Caldas da Rainha fear that the situation will worsen. A customer suggests that lowering the VAT on products could be a government measure to minimise the daily impact.
"We cannot maintain the prices we had": Vendor complains about the rise in the cost of the food basket
Friday, 20 March 2026RSS
Context & Explainers
VAT is Value Added Tax (Imposto sobre o Valor Acrescentado), a consumption tax charged at each stage of production and sale; the standard mainland rate in Portugal is 23%. Parliamentary proposals to cut VAT on bottled gas from 23% to 6% would directly reduce consumer prices if approved.
Inflation measures how much general prices rise over time, usually reported year‑on‑year to compare a month with the same month a year earlier. Portugal’s National Institute of Statistics (INE) estimated January inflation at 1.9% year‑on‑year, down 0.3 percentage points from December, which affects rents, wages and everyday purchasing power for residents.
