The Extended National Consumer Price Index 15 - IPCA-15 changed 0.24% in May and stood slightly above the April rate (0.21%).  As a result, the result in the year went to 1.46%, well below the 4.21% rate in the same period of the previous year. Considering the last 12 months, the index decreased to 3.77%, below the 4.41% rate registered in the 12 immediately previous months, becoming the lowest cumulative change in 12-month periods since July 2007 (3.71%). In May 2016, the rate was 0.86%.

 The complete data of the IPCA-15 can be accessed here.

Medicines, whose prices rose 2.08%, led the major impacts on the IPCA-15 in May (0.07 percentage points). This behavior was due to the annual adjustment in force since March 31, varying between 1.36% and 4.76%, according to the medicine type and resulting in a rise of 2.96% when both April (0.86%) and May (2.08%) were considered.

As a result, Health and Personal care (0.84%) recorded the highest group change for the second month in a row, followed by Wearing apparel (0.74%), as shown in the table below. 

In food products (0.42%), products like potatoes (16.08%), tomatoes, (12.09%) and onion(9.15%) became much more expensive, whereas other like soybean oil (-5.81%),crystallized sugar (-3.03%), fruits

(-2.73%) and carioca beans (-2.52%) had their prices reduced from one month to the other.

As to the other groups, the changes swung between -0.40% and 0.27%. Among them, the drop of 0.40% in the group of Transportation stood out, as fuel cost  1.12% less than it cost in April and impacted -0.06 p.p., the strongest negative impact on the May index. The price of the liter of gasoline became 0.85% cheaper, while the price of ethanol fell 2.48%.

Also influencing the group of Transportation (-0.40%), airfare even dropped 11.42%, impacting -0.04 p.p. Together, airfare (-11.42%) and fuel (-1.12%) exerted a significant negative impact on the IPCA-15 in May (-0.10 p.p.).

Concerning the regional indexes, the metropolitan area of Recife registered the highest figure (0.65%), since the electricity bills increased 4.70%, among other factors. As the electricity fare was adjusted by 8.87% since April 29, it was quite far from the drop of 0.30% in the national average. Also in Recife, the urban bus fare changed 2.89%, whereas the national average stayed at 0.36%. It was due to the cancellation of the half-fare prices on Sundays in that area since March 26.

In order to estimate the IPCA-15, prices were collected from April 13 to May 15, 2017 (reference) and compared with those in effect from March 15 to April 12, 2017 (base). The indicator refers to families with monthly income of 1 to 40 minimum wages and it encompasses the Metropolitan Areas of Rio de Janeiro, Porto Alegre, Belo Horizonte, Recife, São Paulo, Belém, Fortaleza, Salvador, Curitiba, and also Brasília and Goiânia. The methodology is the same as the one used for IPCA; the difference lies in the period of price collection and in the geographic coverage.

Social Communication
23 may 2017