“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.