Electricity bill doubles inflation in May
June 09, 2017 09h00 AM | Last Updated: July 18, 2017 04h06 PM
Influenced by the increase in the electricity bills, the May inflation reached 0.31%, more than doubling the rate of April (0.14%).
Bereft of the discount applied in April, which offset the improper charge of the Charge of Reserve Power - EER, the electricity bills rose 8.98% in May, accounting for 0.29 percentage points of the month´s index.
Eulina Nunes, coordinator of price indexes at the IBGE, stresses, though, "that it is not an acceleration of the growth rate of prices, but a reversal of the discount applied in the previous month".
On the other hand, the groups of Food and Beverages and Transportation dropped in May, helping to limit the rate. "These groups account for about half of the index", highlights Eulina.
The drop of 0.35% in the group of Food Products was pressed by food consumed at home. "The increase in the supply of agricultural products has been influencing the prices", explains Eulina.
In the case of Transportation, which fell 0.42%, the biggest impact came from airfare, which became 11.81% cheaper in May.
In May 2016, the inflation stayed at 0.78%. Since then, the lowest change was registered in September (0.08%). The index rose 0.17 percentage points between April and May 2017, changing from 0.14% to 0.31%.
