In December, gasoline, alcohol, urban bus fees, landline telephones and wearing apparel were the main responsible for the increase in the index

The Extended National Consumer Price Index (IPCA-15) changed 0.84% in December, being above November's figure of 0.63%. The prices were collected from November 12th until December 10th and confronted with prices in force from October 14th until November 11th.

In December, besides gasoline, which was 3.45% more expensive to the consumer due to the price increase occurred in the refineries, and alcohol, which registered a high of 8.64% because of the price rise in the plants, other important items in household expenditure also contributed to increase the index. Urban bus fees, reflecting the rise in the four areas (Belo Horizonte, Recife, Belém e Fortaleza), were, approximately, 1.74% more expensive. Landline telephone bills increased 1.89%. Wearing Apparel rose 1.13%. Together, those items were responsible for almost half of the monthly IPCA-15 (0.45 percentage points).

The other highlights were the increase in the prices of cigarettes (2.71%), automobile repair (2.16%),  automobile insurance (2.15%), interstate bus fees, (1.59%),  domestic worker (1.13%) and bottled gas (1.03%)

In food products, the high in December (0.19%) in relation to November (-0.05%) was the reflex of the price increase in meats (3.31%).

Among the areas, the biggest result was in Belo Horizonte (1.51%) and the smallest, in Fortaleza (0.16%).

In the year, the main IPCA-E individual impact was gasoline (0.51 percentage points)

Cumulating 1.80% in the last quarter, IPCA-E closed 2004 at 7.54%, a smaller rates than the figure of 9.86% recorded in 2003. The monthly results were:

Gasoline, which had an increase of 12.09% in the price of the liter, was responsible for 0.51 percentage points of this year's IPCA, being the main individual impact. In 2003, the prices were almost stable, with only 0.63% of change in the year. Alcohol closed 2003 with a 14.23% fall; in 2004, it got 30.84% more expensive. This way, the contribution of gasoline and alcohol to the index was of 0.80 percentage points.

The other items to exert pressure in the year were: landline telephones (14.73%), used automobiles  (13.79%), new automobiles (11.36%), schools (11.22%), medicines (7.38%) health insurance (10.52%) and electricity (9.66%). Along with fuels, those items were responsible for 3.32 percentage points of contribution, i.e., almost half of this year's result.

Food products, with 3.64% of change and 0.85 percentage points of contribution, increased less than in 2003 (8.57%). Few products posted significant increases, the highlight was pasteurized milk (8.54%), since it is a very important item. Several food products were cheaper, such as cassava flour (-19.43%) and rice (-14.64%).

Curitiba (9.72%) was the area  which posted highest result, while Salvador (5.68%) recorded the smallest.