Despite the fall of food products and apparel prices, the hikes of bus fares and school fees caused the index to be practically the same as in January.

The Extended Consumer Price Index – 15 (IPCA-15) changed by 0.52% in February and was practically the same as in January (0.51%), with accumulated rates of 1.03% in the year and 5.47% in the last twelve months. Even with cheaper food products (-0.40%) and apparel (-0.28%), the seasonal hike of school fees (5.38%) and the concentration of readjustments of urban bus fares (1.96%) led to the similarity of results between the indexes of January and February.

Schools fees

, with recently readjusted prices because of the beginning of the school year, rose by 5.38% and were the main individual impact over the monthly index: 0.22 percentage points. Urban bus fares (1.95%) had hikes in four areas surveyed due to readjustments: Brasília (10.70%), Belo Horizonte (6.32%), Rio de Janeiro (4.44%) and Porto Alegre (2.29%).

The liter of alcohol rose by 5.76% due to the transfer to consumers of price readjustments by fuel distributors. The liter of gasoline got 0.75% more expensive, influenced by rise of alcohol, used to be mixed with it. Besides bus fares and fuels, other items in the Transportation group (1.22%) rose: school transportation (5.76%), vehicle insurance (3.07%), vehicle repair (1.73%), oil (1.43%), lubrication and washing (1.30%) and new automobiles (1.12%).

In the group food products, the fall was mainly caused by the lower prices of chicken (-5.03%) and meats (-3.10%), both important items of families monthly expenses. Other products also had significant falls, for example tomatoes (-26.50%), jerky (-7.78%), onions (-5.98%), black beans (-4.43%) and potatoes ( -4.01%). On the other hand, both refined sugar (11.70%) and crystallized sugar (14.44%) presented significant increases.

The highest indexes by area were registered in Brasília (1.20%) and Belo Horizonte (1.00%), with special highlight to urban bus fares: in Brasília the readjustment of this item was 20.00% on January 1^st, contributing 10.70% to the monthly index. In Belo Horizonte, the readjustment was 12.12% on December 31^st, accounting for 6.32% of the IPCA-15 of February. The lowest result by area was registered in Porto Alegre (0.08%).

The prices for the calculation of the index were collected between January 14 and February 10 and compared to those in effect between December 14 and January 13, 2006. IPCA -15 refers to families with monetary income, from whatever source, ranging from 1 to 40 minimum salaries and it encompasses the metropolitan areas of Rio de Janeiro, Porto Alegre, Belo Horizonte, Recife, São Paulo, Belém, Fortaleza, Salvador and Curitiba, besides Brasília and Goiânia. The same methodology is used to calculate both IPCA and IPCA-15. The difference between the two indexes lies in the period of data collection. The other index, IPCA-E consists of IPCA-15 accumulated by quarter.