Portugal 2016

ENQUADRAMENTO SOCIOECONÓMICO RENDIMENTO E CONDIÇÕES DE VIDA DAS FAMÍLIAS SOCIO-ECONOMIC FRAMEWORK INCOME AND LIVING CONDITIONS OF HOUSEHOLDS 39 Inequality in income distribution became less pronounced once again in 2015, as in the previous year, thus countering the increases observed between 2010 and 2013. The at-risk-of-poverty rate declined, after having stabilised in 2014, to stand at 19.0%. These latest figures countered the worsening seen from 2011 to 2013 (cumulative increase of 1.6 p.p.). In addition, significant differences persisted when considering different population groups. Improvements in inequality in income distribution and the at-risk-of-poverty rate were not sufficient to reach the best values, as attained in 2009. Considering the results of the Income and Living Conditions Survey, in 2015 equivalent net monetary income received by the 20% of the population with the highest income was 5.9 times the income received by the 20% of the population with the lowest income. This value represented a decline from the results of the previous year, and continued to move away from the 2013 result, which was the highest since 2006. The indicator continued to reflect greater inequality compared to the European average, albeit to a lesser extent than in the first five years of the previous decade, when the differential exceeded 2.2 p.p. In the second half of said decade the differential narrowed, to stand at around 1.0 p.p. on average. However, after reaching a minimum of 0.7 p.p. in 2009-10, it worsened up to 2013. Since then the differential narrowed further, and in 2015 it reached the minimum level recorded also in 2009-10. The latest improvement resulted not only from the already mentioned favourable developments in the indicator in Portugal, but also from its stabilisation and even worsening at the European scale (in the EU28 the indicator stabilised at 5.0 between 2010 and 2013, subsequently increasing to 5.2 in the two following years). A comparison of the Portuguese situation with the euro area’s yields the same type of result, i.e. a greater degree of inequality in income distribution and a trend easing of this disparity since 2006, due to the indicators’ opposite paces in Portugal and the euro area.