Monthly school fees, household employees’ wages and food products decelerate and reduce to a half the rate from February to March

The Extended Consumer Price Index -15 (IPCA-15) changed 0.35% in March, a result lower than the one of February (0.74%). Regarding the Special Extended Consumer Price Index IPCA-E of the first quarter, which is formed by the accumulated IPCA-15, the rate remained in 1.78%. The result refers to January (0.68%), February (0.74%) and March (0.35%). In the last twelve months (from April 2004 up to March 2005), the rate remained in 7.31%. The prices for the calculation of the month were collected in the period from February 15 to March 14 and compared to the prices collected between January 13 and February 14.

Since the values of the monthly school fees normally are revised in the beginning of the year by the private instruction institutions, the item courses, which reached a hike of 6.34% in February and was responsible for about one-third of the rate of 0.74% of the IPCA-15 of that month, had its change reduced to 0.49%. In the case of household employees, the rate passed from 1.12% to 0.13%, as a consequence of the end of the impact of the 13^th wage.

With lower prices, air tickets (-4.69%), cooking gas (-1.11%), alcohol (-0.59%) and gasoline (-0.32%) also influenced the result of March.

Regarding food products, the deceleration in the rhythm of growth in the prices (from 0.53% in February to 0.17% in March) was stimulated mainly by the decrease observed in the following items: chicken (-2.39%), meat (-1.06%), soy oil (-1.61%). Among the products that increased, stood out eggs (11.76%).

Considering the hikes, the main impact was produced by the urban bus fares (1.83% of change and 0.09 percentage point of contribution), influenced by the readjustment that took place in São Paulo.

Among the areas, the highest result was observed in Brasília (0.97%) and the lowest result in Salvador (0.10%).

The IPCA-15 refers to families with monetary income, from any source, ranging from 1 to 40 minimum wages. It 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 as the one of the IPCA. The difference between the two indexes refers to the period of price collecting.

March

General Index

0.35%

Brasília

0.97%

São Paulo

0.45%

Belo Horizonte

0.43%

Belém

0.38%

Recife

0.36%

Rio de Janeiro

0.24%

Goiânia

0.23%

Fortaleza

0.23%

Porto Alegre

0.21%

Curitiba

0.17%

Salvador

0.10%