Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa said that the European Commission "has a package of measures or suggestions" for Member States "for the short term, until March, April".

"It is to be hoped or wished for that the situation does not continue in the terms that exist today beyond March and April, because then it would then start to weigh even more on what we all want, which is the recovery of lost time in the economy of Europe and in the world," added the head of state.

Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa framed this issue as a global problem and a collective concern: "The fuel issue concerns all parties, concerns the Government and opposition parties, in Portugal, in neighbouring Spain, in the European Union and in multiple countries around the world, because the factors that are weighing on the prices are in many cases common to several countries in the world".

According to the chief economist of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), energy prices, whose rise is worrying investors, should moderate "by the end of the first quarter of 2022".

"At the moment, even if prices in the short term during the winter months, remain high, we expect them to go down by the end of the first quarter of next year and during the second semester", said Gita Gopinath, in an interview to AFP.

According to Gopinath, "the big risk" would be a severe winter that would lead to "much larger power cuts and power cuts with a much greater effect on the world."

"The worst case scenario is to have a particularly harsh winter in the northern hemisphere, with a rise in energy demands, while at the same time, not being able to solve the problem of disruptions in supply chains," she concluded.