The Extended Consumer Price Index-15 (IPCA-15) changed 0.54% in May, above the result of April (0.21%).  The main causes for the increase are attributable to medicine, electrical energy, wearing apparel and pasteurized milk. The cumulative rate of the year came to 2.76% and the rate over the previous twelve months, came to 5.01%.

Medicines, on average, became 4.26% more expensive, and accumulated 6.25% in the year. They were responsible for 0.17 percentage points of the index of the month, the highest individual impact. The increase in May's index reflects the average adjustment of 5.7% authorized on March 31 to be applied on products controlled by the Regulatory Board.

In the following item, electric energy, the result of 1.88% concentrated adjustments occurred in fees in 6 of the 11 surveyed areas. The biggest change (9.46%) came from Belo Horizonte and the smallest change (0.21%) came from Goiânia

With a growth of 1.47%, wearing apparel reflected a common growth for this time of year, when the autumn-winter collection is on the market.

Food has slowed its falling pace (-0.17% in April and -0.10% in May). That is due to increase in important products consumed by families, mainly pasteurized milk (3.77%), which is crossing a period of short supply. Potatoes (19.70%), crystallized sugar (8.65%) and refined sugar (2.25%) have also increased. Most food products, however, have shown a decline, especially fish (-3.40), chicken (-2.82%), eggs (-2.67%), carioca beans (-2.20%) and rice (-1.77%).

Gasoline has posted a less intense decline (-2.07% in April and -0.31% in May), while prices for alcohol fuel, after a substantial fall in April (-12.11%), became 1.20% more expensive in May.

Among the areas, the highest result was in Curitiba (1.39%) mainly because of the change in urban bus fees (10.47%). The smallest indexes were registered in São Paulo (0.24%) and Belém (0.23%).

IPCA-15 refers to families with incomes from 1 to 40 minimum wages, whichever the source, and covers the metropolitan areas of Rio de Janeiro, Porto Alegre, Belo Horizonte, Recife, São Paulo, Belém, Fortaleza, Salvador and Curitiba, besides Brasília and Goiânia. IPCA-15 is measured using the same methodology as IPCA, which has its price collected throughout the month. The difference between the two indicators is in the period of price collection. Prices to make these calculations were collected during the period of April 13 to May 12 and compared with prices in practice from March 13 and April 12. The following chart contains the results of the indexes by areas.