“The loss of purchasing power is permanent, given that
inflation works like a tax. If the price index is 10 percent and our income
only increases by 5 percent, we have a 5 percent loss. We are no longer able to
buy exactly the same thing with the same money”, explains Nuno Rico, economist
at Deco Proteste, to Jornal de Notícias.
According to the National Institute of Statistics (INE), in
a decade, spending on food should rise by 22 percent. Thus, in 2023, a family
consisting of two adults and a dependent will have to spend an additional €2,705
to buy the same products and services that they would have bought in 2014.
Prices only “go back” when there is a crisis, as happened from 2011 to 2013, in
which “there was a drop in income and sellers ended up reducing margins,
lowering sales prices due to lower demand”, adds the economist.