This is a gain five times above the average recorded by the countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

According to data released by the OECD, only Hungarian, Polish and Greek families recorded a real increase in their income above Portuguese levels in this period. In the Eurozone, only Greece performed better than Portugal.

The real gain in income of Portuguese families (which takes inflation into account) between the third quarter of 2022 and the third quarter of 2023 was also accompanied by a growth of 1.61% in real GDP per capita, which made Portugal the country with the highest growth rate of real GDP per inhabitant in the European Union in this period.

At the bottom of the table on the evolution of household purchasing power over the last year are Austria, Ireland and Sweden, which recorded real year-on-year income losses of 9.56%, 4.65% and 4.51%, respectively.

Despite this real year-on-year gain in income on the part of national families, OECD data reveal that, in the third quarter, the dynamics weakened, with Portuguese families recording a real loss of 0.28% of their income compared to the figures recorded in the previous quarter.

This number was also accompanied by a 0.26% drop in GDP per capita in Portugal in this period and compared with an average loss of 0.2% in the real income of families in OECD countries.

Among the 21 of the 38 OECD countries that have already made data available, 11 recorded real gains in family wages in the third quarter of 2023, with particular emphasis on Hungary, which recorded a growth rate of 5.5% “due to strong growth in workers’ remuneration, income from self-employment and income from property”, says the OECD in a statement.