The Extended Consumer Price Index- 15 (IPCA-15) changed by 0.46% in February 2007, below the rate of 0.52% registered in January and accumulated 2.91% in the last 12 months.

While education increased by 3.48% (in January it had been 0.16%), transportation, which had influenced the previous index with 1.03%, had the rate reduced to 0.11%.  The same occurred with apparel, which changed from 0.37% in January to -0.64% in February.

The reduction in transportation, group which had 21% of the total expenditures of families, occurred  mainly due to the lower intensity of hike in the tariffs of urban buses (from 3.29% in January to 2.10% in February) and metropolitan buses (from 3.26% to 1.08%), besides the most significant decrease in the prices of  gasoline (from -0.42% to -1.53%).  Alcohol, on the other hand, continued to increase and was 3.14% more expensive in February, accumulating 6.79% in 2007.

In relation to education, increases in the monthly fees of the formal education courses reached 4.26%, being the major individual contribution in the index of the month (0.20 percentage points).  In the monthly fees of miscellaneous courses (languages, computer science, etc...) the hike reached 3.55%.

Regarding the group food products and beverages, the change of 0.73% was very close to the rate of 0.74%, observed in January.  As a consequence of heavy rain which damaged several crops, the prices of tomatoes increased by 42.45%, and green vegetables were 14.49% more expensive.  On the other hand, the prices of beans (-4.03%) and rice (-2.26%) fell more than other products.

Among the indexes by areas, the highest one was from Salvador (1.24%), metropolitan area where the change of tariffs of urban buses was 15.29%, showing the major part of the readjustment of 17.65%, which can be observed since January 20th.  The lowest indexes were observed in Porto Alegre and Curitiba (-0.12%).