The Extended Consumer Price Index -15 (IPCA-15) changed 0.74% in February, a result above the one of January (0.68%). In the two first months of the year, the IPCA-15 accumulates a rate of 1.43% and, in the last twelve months (from March 2004 up to February 2005), 7.36%. The prices for the calculation of the month’s index were collected in the period January 13 to February 14, and compared to the prices charged from December 11, 2004 to January 12 of this year.

The item education, with change of 6.34%, was the main responsible for the hike of the month. Regarding the rate of 0.74% of the IPCA-15, approximately one third (0.25 percentage point) was due to the item schools. With the school monthly fee usually revised in the beginning of the year by the private instruction institutions and computed in the index of February, the item remained with the major contribution in the month.

Stood out, among the items with growing rates, the inter municipal bus tariffs which, with growth in five among eleven surveyed areas, resulted in 6.11%. Besides this, the changes in the prices of household appliances (1.85%) and car repair service (1.95%) were relatively high. Stand out, also, the salaries of household employees (1.12%).

On the other hand, some important items in the expenditure of families also remained cheaper. The prices of alcohol (-1.74%), gasoline (-0.67%), cooking gas (-0.60%), urban bus fares (-0.36%) and apparel (-0.22%) fell. Regarding food products, despite the increase of prices in some items more sensible to the climate such as potatoes (16.92%), green vegetables (10.75%) and tomatoes (6.21%), there was a slowdown in the rate of the group as a whole, passing from 0.97% in January to 0.53% in February. This result was influenced, mainly, by the falls in meats (from 2.59% to –0.87%), chicken (from 2.80% to –0.68%) and eggs (from 2.39% to –1.09%). Other products continued to present decrease in this beginning of the year, such as rice, which passed from a rate of –2.70% in January to –3.90% in February.

Among the areas, the major result was observed in São Paulo (0.94%). The lowest results were registered in Belo Horizonte (0.47%) and Curitiba (0.49%).

The IPCA-15 refers to families with monetary income, from any source, ranging from 1 to 40 minimum wages, and includes the metropolitan areas of Rio de Janeiro, Porto Alegre, Belo Horizonte, Recife, São Paulo, Belém, Fortaleza, Salvador and Curitiba, besides Brasília and Goiânia. The methodology used is the same of the IPCA. The difference between the two indexes is the period of price collecting.

February

General Index

0.74%

São Paulo

0.94%

Porto Alegre

0.82%

Rio de Janeiro

0.70%

Belém

0.69%

Salvador

0.69%

Brasília

0.65%

Recife

0.62%

Goiânia

0.55%

Fortaleza

0.54%

Curitiba

0.49%

Belo Horizonte

0.47%