Lisbon, Sept. 16, 2026 (Lusa) - The minister of the economy and territorial cohesion, Manuel Castro Almeida, said today that inflation is not going well and acknowledged that the Portuguese are facing difficulties due to rising fuel prices.

«Inflation is not going well; it should be falling, but it is rising,» said the minister, speaking at the statutory hearing of the parliamentary committee on the Economy and Territorial Cohesion.

He described the issue of fuel as «a sensitive matter», agreeing that «the Portuguese people are facing difficulties due to this extraordinary rise in the cost of fuel».

«What the Government is doing is ensuring that it does not profit from the effects of the war,» emphasised Castro Almeida, noting that «the effects of the war are driving up the price of petrol; if the price of petrol rises, VAT revenue increases, and the Government is channelling the increase in VAT revenue into reductions in the fuel tax (ISP) to offset the rise in VAT revenue, so that there is no increase in tax revenue at the expense of the war».

«That is the offsetting measure the Government is implementing».

Furthermore, «the Government has decided to provide special support» for agricultural diesel, which benefits farmers, and to indirectly prevent the rise in the price of agricultural diesel from being passed on to supermarket shelves in the form of higher prices for agricultural products, he continued.

It has also been announced that the Government is preparing – and will shortly approve – «measures to support professional hauliers as well as firefighters, in order to support their work».

In short, the Government's approach is not to take blanket measures for the entire population, but rather to take measures targeted at the sectors that are most severely affected.

ALU/AYLS // AYLS

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