According to the EU’s official statistics body, in Portugal, when applying the standardised purchasing power (PPS) measure, electricity cost 29.3 PPS per 100 kWh with gas costing 12.6 PPS for the same amount of power, both being the highest in the EU.

Meanwhile, over the same six-month period, the average price of electricity in the EU stood at 21.1 PPS per 100 kWh and 21.6 PPS in the Eurozone whilst the respective figures for gas were 7.1 PPS and 7.5 PPS.

Attempting to keeping pace with Portugal in the level of electricity bills were Germany (28.3), Spain and Romania (26.5 apiece) whilst Finland (12.3), Sweden (14.6) and Luxembourg (14.7) registered the cheapest rates.

As regards the cost of natural gas, the cheapest supplies for households were to be found in the second half of last year in Luxembourg (4.0), the United Kingdom (5.1) and Belgium whilst Portugal (12.6) led the way in the most expensive followed by Spain (10.4), Greece and Sweden (9.2 apiece).

One factor influencing this pricing performance is the weighting of taxes and levies on electricity bills that in Portugal account for 50% of the final bill, behind Denmark (69%) and Germany (52%) but well out in front of the European average of 33%.