This is the 4296th most frequent Portuguese word.
agravou
"Aggravou" means "worsened" or "aggravated" in English.
In this sentence, 'agravou' is used reflexively with '-se' to indicate that the worsening of the situation occurred inherently and over time.
A situação econômica do país agravou-se nos últimos meses.
The economic situation of the country has worsened in the last months.
Here, 'agravou' is used transitively to show that the action (increase in prices) directly worsened the state of another condition (inequality).
O aumento dos preços agravou o problema da desigualdade.
The increase in prices exacerbated the problem of inequality.
In this usage, 'agravou' indicates that the subject (financial difficulties) influenced the gravity or seriousness of the decision being made.