Executive summary
- In December 2019, telecommunication prices, measured by the sub-index of the Consumer Price Index (CPI), decreased 0.15% from the previous month. This reduction resulted from changes in bundled offers and by one provider.
- Compared to the same month of the previous year, the observed variation in prices was -4.39%. This price reduction primarily reflects the entry into force on 15 May 2019 of the new European rules regulating the prices of intra-EU communications. The year-on-year variation of telecommunications prices has been lower than the growth of the CPI since November 2017.
- The average variation rate of telecommunications prices of the last twelve months was -2.69%, i.e. 3.03 percentage points (p.p.) below that recorded by the CPI (0.34%), corresponding to the highest negative deviation since February 2011.
- In December 2019, the average variation rate of telecommunications prices in Portugal was lower than that observed in the EU (-2.6 p.p.). However, the average variation rate of telecommunications prices of the last twelve months in Portugal was the 25th highest among EU countries. The country that recorded the highest increase of prices was Romania (+4.3), while the highest decrease occurred in Italy (-6.1%). On average in the EU, telecommunications prices fell by 0.1%.
- According to a study undertaken and published by the European Commission, in February 2019 the prices for mobile phone voice and Internet in Portugal were between 19% and 98% higher than the EU28 average.
