While Portugal’s hard-pressed households try and make sense of their shrinking monthly budgets, the price of gas and electricity steadily has been rising to make it one of the most expensive in Europe.
Portugal registered the highest increase in gas prices for households within the European Union last year, according to the latest data published by Eurostat.
The recent price hikes show that Portugal now is among the countries with the highest prices for electricity and natural gas for domestic customers in the European Union.
For gas, Portugal has the second highest final price in the EU, just behind Sweden. For electricity the price paid by families is seventh highest.
The Eurostat data refers to the second half of 2014 and shows an average price rise for electricity in the EU of 2.9% compared to 2013 - the average price of natural gas for domestic consumption increased by 2%.
But in Portugal, the cost of electricity including taxes and fees rose 4.9% and gas was up an eye-watering 11.4%.
For gas the price rise in Portugal shot it to 'second most expensive in Europe' in a country with below average wages, for those still with jobs.
In terms of purchasing power parity, which adjusts the cost of the product to the purchasing power in each economy, Portugal has the most expensive gas in the EU with Spain and Bulgaria in second and third places.
The government response was that the figures from Eurostat did not take into account the lower ‘social tariff’ prices charged to households on low or nearly non-existent incomes.
Jorge Moreia da Silva, Environment Minster said of the government pledge that "500,000 families would be helped with their electricity bills by the use of the social tariff this year" that there had been “insufficient communication and a lack of implementation of the legislation on the ground.”
This weak response is an attemp to hide the deliberate tightening of the criteia that has meant that only 50,000 households have benefitted from the social tariff amid continuing disconnections.
This still leaves the vast majority of consumers in the country shelling out for gas and electricity as if their earning power was the same as that of workers in the better off northern economies.
For water bills, see: http://www.algarvedailynews.com/news/5714-water-bills-are-incoherent
