Portugal announces 2.4 billion package to alleviate energy crisis and price hikes

Portugal’s Prime Minister António Costa has announced a package of measures valued at 2,400 euros to support the income of Portuguese households with the aim of mitigating the effects of inflation and the rising cost of energy in the face of winter.

Specifically, the list of measures presented by the Portuguese government, called ‘Families First’, includes an extraordinary payment in the amount of 125 euros to each citizen who does not receive a pension and who has a monthly income of up to 2,700 euros, as reported by the Lusa news agency.

Also, housing will be capped as of January 1 at two percent, while the price of public transport will be frozen until 2023 and a VAT rebate on electricity supply will be applied from the current 13 percent to six percent, effective until December 2023, according to a government statement.

The measures, according to António Costa, aim to support families “in the short term”, in a “balanced” way “in security”, but without “taking a bigger step”, taking into account the need to reduce the Portuguese public debt.

In this way, the aid will reach 4 billion euros, after adding the initiatives already adopted previously — of 1.6 billion euros — with the current package of 2.4 billion euros announced Monday night.

This is not the first European government to launch similar initiatives in the run-up to winter. Just this week, the German Executive agreed in coalition — the German Social Democratic Party (SPD), the Greens and the Free Democratic Party (FDP) — on an aid package of more than 65 billion euros to alleviate the energy crisis.