The Minister of Infrastructure in Portugal, Pedro Nuno Santos, has stated that the government is monitoring the pressure of rising interest rates on household income and is "prepared to study measures", in addition to the 2% limit introduced in the updating of rents. Here are all the details about rising interest rates and how the government is prepared to study measures in housing in Portugal.
Pedro Nuno Santos was speaking at a press conference with the ministers of Finance, Labour and Environment to detail the package of measures to support family incomes to mitigate the effects of inflation, estimated at 2.4 billion euros in terms of impact on expenditure, approved on Monday,¡ 5th September 2022, in the Council of Ministers.
Stressing the high number of people in Portugal who have taken out a mortgage to buy a house, the Minister of Infrastructure and Housing said the Government is "attentive" to the pressure that the rise in interest rates is having on household income and is studying measures.
Portuguese Government attentive to the pressure of rising interest rates
"We are monitoring, we are studying measures within the possibilities of the country and when justified we will say something concrete on this matter," said the minister, adding that the fact that in this package of measures now known there is no support directed at homeowners, this "does not mean that they are not attentive" to more of this very significant pressure on the budget of the majority of families that in Portugal are homeowners with debt to the bank.
The MP added that "we are not ignoring this problem, we are monitoring the pressure that the increase in interest rates may have on household income, not only monitoring but also prepared to study measures," he said, stressing that measures such as the moratorium that was in force during the pandemic can probably not be recovered as they were designed in a European context.
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