IPCA-15
Inflation preview: 0.34% is the lowest rate for a month of February in the Plano Real era
February 21, 2019 09h00 AM | Last Updated: February 21, 2019 11h44 AM
The inflation preview is 0.34% in February, after recording 0.30% in January. The result was the same as in February 2000, and recorded the lowest rate in the series since the start of Plano Real, in July 1994. These data come from the Extended Consumer Price Index -15 (IPCA-15), released today by the IBGE, which had a cumulative increase of 0.64%, in the year, and of 3.73% in the last 12 months.
Education (3.52%) recorded the biggest change in February, having accounted for the main positive impact on the index of 0.17 percentage points. Other groups recording rise of prices were Communication (0.05%), Housing (0.18%), Personal expenses (0.30%), Household articles (0.47%), Health and personal care (0.56%) and Food and beverages (0.64%). Wearing apparel and Transportation faced deflation of 0.92% and 0.46% in the month, respectively.
The aforementioned group was severely affected by the rise of school fees and others, which usually occur in the back to school period. Regular courses, for example, rose 4.60%, and the monthly fees of miscellaneous courses, by 3.16%.
Food and beverages recorded a slight deceleration due to food at home, which rose only 0.68%, against the rise of 1.07% in January. Meat, however, fell by 0.28% in February, and tomato, the prices of which had a decrease in the previous month (-8.16%), had even more significant deflation in February (-20.32%).
Transportation accounted for the main negative contribution (-0.09 p.p.) among the groups surveyed in the IPCA-15, although deflation did not reach the level recorded in January (-0.47%). Gasoline (-2.43%) fell for the third month in a row and registered the main individual negative impact on the index (0.11 percentage points). Other highlights are the fall of prices of ethanol (-1.31%) and diesel (-0.15%).
The Wearing apparel sector represented a negative impact as well, both in terms of female (-1.40%), male (-0.76%) and children's clothes (-0.99%). Moreover, footwear, after a small increase in January (0.11%), now recorded a 0.8% decrease.
The metropolitan areas of Goiânia (-0.04%) and Brasília (-0.15%) were the only ones to have deflation from January to February. The figure in Brasília was mainly due to the fall of air fares by 18.33%. The metropolitan area of Belém had the highest inflation figure (0.63%), mainly due to the significant rise of pinto beans prices (50.08%).
