(6 Sep 2022) ASSOCIATED PRESS
Lisbon – 5 September 2022
1. Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa arriving at news briefing
2. Costa delivering speech
3. Sign reading (Portuguese) “Families first, plan to address increased prices”
4. SOUNDBITE (Portuguese) Antonio Costa, Portuguese Prime Minister:
“As a consequence of the pandemic and mostly of the war of Russia against Ukraine, we have been feeling a brutal increase in inflation that painfully affects the purchasing power of families, it has been thirty years since the last time we felt such an acute increase in the cost of living.”
5. Briefing room
6. SOUNDBITE (Portuguese) Antonio Costa, Portuguese Prime Minister:
“The government decided to assign an extraordinary payment of 125 euros to each citizen, non pensioner, who has a monthly income up to 2700 euros. The government also decided, no matter the family income, an additional 50 euros for each child or young person under (family) care.”
7. Camera
8. SOUNDBITE (Portuguese) Antonio Costa, Portuguese Prime Minister:
“The government has also decided that pensioners will receive an extraordinary amount equivalent to half a pension month, this extraordinary measure equivalent to more than 50 percent of their pension value will be paid once in October.”
9. Costa delivering statement
10. SOUNDBITE (Portuguese) Antonio Costa, Portuguese Prime Minister:
“It is not in the hands of the government, as we all know, to impose peace and end the war. And we know very well there is no magic measure to erase the impact of a conflict like the one we are living, but thanks to responsible budget management we can safely adopt this new set of measures that this year alone will have an additional cost of 2400 million euros exclusively dedicated to families.”
11. Various of briefing room
STORYLINE
The Portuguese government announced Monday a set of measures that amount to 2.4 billion euros to help families cope with increasing inflation.
Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa outlined the aid plan that focuses on families, pensioners and the most vulnerable.
Among the eight key measures is the one-time payment of 125 euros per citizen with an income of up to 2700 monthly euros and, no matter the income, an additional 50 euros per child or young person per household.
As for pensioners, measures include a 50 percent increase of their pension for the month of October only and further payments to be discussed and approved by the Portuguese Parliament, depending on each category.
Further measures include the reduction of taxes on electricity from 12 to 6 percent and a cap on rent prices, transport fees and also a discount on fuel prices.
Inflation in Portugal stabilized at about 9% in August, roughly the same as in July.
During his primetime evening briefing, Costa referred to the pandemic and mostly the war in Ukraine as the main causes of inflation in the country.  
“We have been feeling a brutal increase in inflation that painfully affects the purchasing power of families, it has been thirty years since the last time we felt such an acute increase in the cost of living,” he said.
All EU countries — as well as many nations around the world — are battling soaring inflation driven by energy prices.
AP video shot by Helena Alves
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