The Extended National Consumer Price Index (IPCA-15) changed by 0.39% in August, being above the July rate (0.33%).  As a result, the index accumulated in the year was 3.2%, below that of the same period in 2011 (4.48%) Compared with the last 12 months, IPCA-15 was 5.37% above the figure of the immediately previous 12 months (5.24%). In July 2011, the rate was 0.27%.

The complete publication is available at: https://www.ibge.gov.br/home/estatistica/indicadores/precos/ipca15/defaultipca15.shtm

Transportation was the main group affecting the acceleration of IPCA-15 from July to August. Its result changed from a decline of 0.59% in July to zero in August. That is attributable to the following items: new cars (from 2.47% to 0.04%), interstate buses (from 1.49% to 3.40%), car insurance (from -0.33% to 0.96%) and used cars (from -2.45% t -0.15%).

Other hikes were recorded by health and personal care, with a change from 0.37%, in July, to 0.52%, in August, mainly due to the results of medicines (from 0.07% to 0.52%) and of articles for personal hygiene (from 0.30% to 0.55%).

The group education, which changed from 0.10% to 0.54%, reflected the results obtained from the data collection of August and the reality of the second semester of the school year. Regular courses changed by 0.32%, whereas other courses (computing, languages, etc.) recorded hike of 1.39%.

Household articles also rose, having changed from 0.19% in July to 0.23% in August, being affected by household appliances (from -0.67% to 0.70%).

In spite of the deceleration in relation to the previous year, food products and beverages (from 0.88% in July to 0.76% in August) recorded the biggest change in the August edition of IPCA-15, as shown in the table below:

Tomatoes (from 29.30% to 36.65%) remained in the ranking of the main impacts to the monthly index, with 0.09 percentage points. Besides that, other food products recorded hikes.  One example is carrots (from 13.63% to 19.37%) meals taken out of the household (from 0.47% to 1.84%), beer out of the household (from 1.21% to 1.76%), snacks (from 1.68% to 1.66%), soybean oil (from 1.15% to 1.17%), noodles (from -0.28% to 1.02%), chicken (from -1.30% to 1.10%), rice (from 0.33% to 0.91%) and meals (from 0.57% to 0.72%).  French bread rolls (from 1.67% to 0.86%), despite the decline in July, remained high and affected the index significantly.

In terms of falling results, the highlights were carioca beans (from -4.52% to -9.33%), potatoes (from 11.78% to -9.23%) and meats (from -0.53% to -0.76%).

Considering personal expenses (from 0.92% to 0.68%), the item domestic worker – which changed from 1.37% to 1.11% and, even so, featured in the second position among monthly impacts, with 0.04 percentage points – had a difference in its calculation methodology. The same occurred to manpower for small repair (a part of housing), which rose from 0.39% to 0.56%.

In Rio de Janeiro, exceptionally, due to the lack of availability of data of the Monthly Employment Survey (PME) relative to June, the calculation included the latest income figures informed for that area (relative to May), in order to estimate the trends of the income series in August.

So, starting in May, the results for Rio de Janeiro were estimated three months ahead, instead of two, which is the methodology adopted.  The other areas followed the regular procedures described in the technical notes 01/2007 and 02/2007, being estimated two months ahead considering the income of June collected through PME.

The decrease of residential rents (from 1.16% to 0.43%) was the main responsible for the change of housing which, from 0.41% in July, to 0.28% in August.  

Apparel (from 0.39% to 0.18%) and communication (from 0.14% to -0.03%) also presented changes below those observed in July. Non-food products recorded change of 0.28%, whereas, in the previous month, they had recorded 0.16%.

Fortaleza recorded the highest index by area (0.69%), being influenced by food products (1.15%), electricity (1.35%) and gasoline (3.94%). The lowest index was that of Curitiba (0.23%), where electricity faced decrease by 1.00%, reflecting the average reduction of 4.11% granted on June 24. Besides, Curitiba recorded decrease of 3.87% in the prices of hair stylists’ services.  See below the table with monthly results by area surveyed.

In order to measure the index of the month the prices collected from July 14 to August 13 (reference) were compared with the ones in effect from June 14 to July 13 (base). 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 that of IPCA. The difference lies in the period of price collection.