The least affluent households, but also the middle class, are particularly affected by inflation, while poverty has significantly increased from the pandemic of COVVI-19.
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These images have something terrifying. They say a lot about the social crisis engendered by inflation in Portugal: in some Lisbon or Porto supermarkets, tuna boxes at 1.79 euros are now sold enclosed in anti -theft plastic boxes.
And for good reason: since September, basic food flights – tuna, but also bread, coffee, rice – take off in supermarkets, especially in cities, laments Gonçalo Lobo Xavier, President the Portuguese association Distribution companies (APED), in the weekly Expresso of October 21 , also citing the testimonies of security agents.
If the APED does not give a specific figure, it is that, very often, the security agents, precisely, little declare these flights to the police. “Retirees, students or parents who no longer manage to properly feed their children, even with two wages, are reduced to this in the face of pricing, is alarmed the European poverty network (EAPN) . When they are desperate, people commit desperate acts. “In September, inflation jumped 9.8 % – a level close to the average of the euro zone, at 9.9 % -, including 17 % For food products (tale 14.1 % in the euro zone) and 21.7 % for meat (13.8 %).
less than 554 euros per month
Above all: these increases intervene while the country has come out particularly weakened from the Pandemic of Covid-19. According to data published by Eurostat in September, Portugal is the Member State where the poverty rate increased the most in 2021: it increased from 16.2 % to 18.4 % in one year, while it remained stable, around 16.7 %, in the European Union.
In 2021, the gross domestic product per capita was the equivalent of 74 % of that of the European average. It is less than in 2019, before the pandemic, where it rose to 79 %. Today, nearly 2 million people (out of a total population of 10.3 million inhabitants) live with less than 554 euros per month.
“New families in the middle class, which we did not see before, come to ask for food aid, and part of those who could once no longer have the means”, also explains to the world rita Valadas, president of Caritas Portugal, a Catholic NGO helping the poorest. For its part, the EAPN calls on the government to take new measures to support households in the face of inflation.
Since this summer, an outbreak of shelf flights has also been observed in Denmark, Germany, the United Kingdom and Spain, for the same reasons. Some supermarkets choose to close part of the automatic funds to limit the phenomenon. Across the Channel, the Aldi, Tesco and Asda channels also laid anti-thefts on certain basic necessities.