Spaniards and Portuguese cross the line in their battle against inflation: "Many neighbors cross the border to have cheap oil"

Inflation gives no respite to certain basic goods for the consumer, who struggles to acquire them at a good price.. Gasoline, for example, although it has given a very slight respite in the last week, is paid at a higher price than when the Government discounted it at the pumps, while oil continues its drastic increase.

In the Spanish towns bordering Portugal there is now a strange case because just a few kilometers have a great impact on the pocket. Marga, owner of a food store in Cedillo—a small town in the province of Cáceres with 432 inhabitants on the border with Portugal—says that in the neighboring country oil is cheaper than here, at around seven euros.. The consequence is obvious: “I work in the store with the best quality Spanish oil, but many in the town take the opportunity to buy it there.”

The Portuguese-Spanish border, also known as “the stripe”, 1,214 kilometers long, is the longest between two states of the European Union. The multiple bordering towns, called “rayanas”, share several historical, cultural and economic elements.

Food prices are generally slightly lower in Portugal.. It is explained by Nuno Cunha, a Portuguese citizen who, for personal reasons, travels from the north of the country to La Coruña frequently.. “Things in Spain are more expensive because salaries are higher. But I don't notice that there is that much difference either,” says Cunha.

Cunha's statements are supported by data: the GDP per capita in Spain is €28,280, while in Portugal, this figure is €23,530 per person.. Likewise, there are differences in salaries. The average Spanish salary is €28,360 per year, compared to €21,606 in Portugal; and the minimum interprofessional salary reaches €1,260 per month in Spanish territory, much more than €886.70 in Portugal.

According to data from August 2023, the CPI was higher in Portugal, although very slightly: 3.7% compared to 3.5% in Spain. Even so, Cunha recognizes a specific product that is cheaper in Spanish territory: gasoline.

“The majority of the customers are Portuguese, they come regularly from the surrounding towns,” a gas station employee in the Huelva town of Ayamonte, which borders Portugal in the south of the Peninsula, tells 20minutos. “Diesel is 15 cents (per liter) more expensive in Portugal,” says another gasoline professional from Ayamonte, who adds that it is totally normal to see “how they arrive with drums and fill them.”

They are citizens of Vila Real de Santo António or Castro Marim, neighboring Portuguese towns, who usually buy diesel and gas in large quantities. “It's obvious, because someone who is passing through is not going to take as much,” says the second worker interviewed.. “They take a lot of butane cylinders: in Portugal they cost 29.75 and here only €15. They save half of what it would cost them there,” he says.

Life on the border

“The border, for us, does not exist,” says Beti Rey, journalist and host of the Municipal Radio of Tui, a town in the south of the province of Pontevedra divided in two by the Miño River: one bank is Spanish and the other, Portuguese, called Valença do Minho. “There are people who go to Valença to have a coffee, to their English class; while there are other Portuguese who come to Tui to walk the dog or eat out. We never think that we are going to another country,” he says by phone.

Faced with a drastic change in prices, citizens on both sides of the river cross the bridge normally. But there was a strange moment where traffic came to a complete standstill.. “The closure of the borders with the pandemic was very shocking. Suddenly, we couldn't meet with our neighbors, our friends or our teachers,” he tells 20minutos.

However, the Extremaduran town of Cedillo presents a unique and surprising anomaly.. Although they are only 13 kilometers from the Portuguese town of Montalvao, the presence of an Iberdrola hydraulic power plant on the Tagus River forces the residents of Cedillo to make a 120-kilometer detour for safety reasons.. When the plant closes on weekends, it does allow citizens from both sides of the border to cross a bridge.

“An acquaintance who lives in Portugal shops in our town,” says Marga. “But obviously he has to come pick her up on the weekends. We leave it here for him and he comes for it.”

Nuno Cunha tells 20minutos that, in recent years, the great differences between Spain and Portugal have been drastically diluted. “Years ago, there were several products that we could only get from one side or the other of the border. I remember the fruits in syrup, which did not exist in Portugal. But, nowadays, you can get everything at a similar price,” says Cunha, who notes that several of the trucks that supply his usual supermarket “have Spanish license plates.”

“I don't quite understand it,” he confesses.. “Many Portuguese or Spaniards are looking to save a little on their purchases, but with the price of traveling by car it is no longer worth it.. They don't realize it,” says this Portuguese citizen.. Marga, from Cedillo, shares the same reflection: “Many go to the city of Cáceres, but they spend at least 20 euros on gasoline. Except in very exceptional cases, it doesn't make much sense.”