The National Consumer Price Index-15 (IPCA-15) of May is 0.59%, significantly above the result of 0.36% in April. In the last 12 months, the accumulated rate of 5.44% was close to that in the immediately previous months: 5.40%. In May 2008, IPCA-15 was 0.56%.

The May IPCA-15 rate of 0.59% was 0.23 percentage points above the rate in April (0.36%). Cigarettes (18.42%) and medicines (3.21%) were the items accounting for the major contributions to this monthly result, representing, together, 0.26 percentage points of the index, that is, 44%.

The rate remained being affected by the items electricity (1.85%) and domestic workers (1.35%). As a consequence, the group non-food products changed by 0.68%, being above the April rate (0.41%). As for food products, the result changed from 0.20 %, in April, to 0.29% in May. The highlight was pasteurized milk (from 0.99% to 6.26%), the main item accounting for the rise of the rate from one month to the other.

Other items also rose: the kilogram of potatoes (from 10.22% to 18.47%), meats (from -1.98% to 0.74%) and tomatoes (from -3.75% to 6.69%).

On the other had, from April to May, there was fall of prices of refined sugar (from 7.81% to 1.05%), crystallized sugar (from 3.85% to -1.33%) and green vegetables (from 5.56% to -5.39%). Other prices kept falling: rice (from -1.84% % to -3.13%), “carioca” beans (from -11.38% to -7.51%) and black beans (from -12.59% to -10.66%). 

Among the indexes by area, the major change occurred in Porto Alegre (1.05%), where food products (1.03%) had the lowest result in the month. The major change was that of Salvador (0.07%), with deflation of food products (-0.17%).

For the calculation of IPCA-15, prices collected from April 14 to May 13 were compared to those collected from May 14 and April 13. The indicator refers to families with income ranging from 1 to 40 minimum wages and 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 methodology used is the same as in IPCA; the difference between the two indexes lies in the data-collection period. IPCA-15 accumulated in periods is called IPCA-E.