IPCA
Airfares contribute to inflation drop
April 10, 2018 09h00 AM | Last Updated: April 10, 2018 10h05 AM
March inflation stood at 0.09%, quite below the 0.32% of February, as disclosed today by the IBGE. According to the manager of the Extended National Consumer Price Index (IPCA), Fernando Gonçalves, March's downturn has to do mostly with the price decrease of airfares, on average 15% cheaper. “If we consider that January and February were vacation months, in March there is a tendency of drop, as the school year begins”, he explains. As a result, the transportation sector had a deflation of -0.25%.
The other group that contributed to inflation decrease was Communication, with a deflation of -0.33%, driven by the fee reduction in the local and intercity calls, from landline phones to mobiles, in effect since February 25.
The highs were due to fruits (5.32%), whose seasonal supply contributed to the increase in the group Food and beverages (0.07%). “However, also because of supply, the prices of meat (-1.18%), tomatoes (-5.31%) and whole chicken (-2.85%) fell”, points out Fernando Gonçalves. The increase in the insurance health plans and in electricity in Rio de Janeiro also had a significant participation in the composition of March inflation.
The data from the Extended Consumer Price (IPCA), released today by the IBGE, show that the inflation of the month (0.09%) and the cumulative index of the year (0.70%) recorded the lowest level for a month of March since the implementation of the Plano Real in 1994. In the last 12 months, the index was 2.68%. In March 2017, the rate reached 0.25%. For the calculation of the index of the month, prices collected in the period of March 02 to March 29 of 2018 (reference) were compared with those from January 30 to March 01 of 2018 (base).
