The Extended National Consumer Price Index-15 (IPCA) changed 0.46% in May and stood below the IPCA-15 of April, which was 0.51%. With that result, the cumulative indicator of the year was at 3.06%, quite above the rate of 2.39% relative to the same period of 2012. Considering the last 12 months, the index went to 6.46%, going down the 6.51% of the 12 months prior to that period. In May of 2012, the rate was at 0.51%.

Medicine, with 0.10 percentage points, led the main impacts of the month. The 2.94% high in May, after the 0.93% rate of April, reflected the adjustment in force since April 4, which ranged from 2.70% to 6.31% depending on the medicine type. As a result, the year accumulates a 4.18% high. Medicine took health and personal care to the highest position in the group, reaching 1.30% against 0.63% in the previous month.

In order to estimate IPCA-15, prices were collected from April 13 to May 14 and compared with those in effect from March 15 to April 12. The indicator refers to families with monthly income of one to forty minimum wages and it encompasses the metropolitan regions of Rio de Janeiro, Porto Alegre, Belo Horizonte, Recife, São Paulo, Belém, Fortaleza, Salvador, Curitiba, and also Brasília and Goiânia. The methodology is the same as the one used for IPCA; the difference lies in the period of price collection.

Housing (from 0.68% to 0.72%) and wearing apparel (from 0.44% to 0.76%) also posted rising rates from one month from the other. The group communication kept falling, but with a lower intensity (-0.09% to -0.06%).

Conversely food, although rising 0.47%, marked a sharp fall over April, when the high was 1.00%. Many products were cheaper from April to May; among them, those which are very important for families, such as refined sugar (-6.46%) and crystallized sugar (-2.37%), soybean oil (-2,23%), coffee (-1,92%), rice (-1,78%), chicken (-1,72%) and meat (-0,75%). The highlight was tomatoes, whose prices fell around 12.42% in the month. On the other hand, other important products in the families' budgets posted significant rises in their prices, as  carioca beans  (10,13%),  onions  (5,63%),  potatoes  (5,45%), milk powder (3,32%),  UHT milk  (3,14%),  fruit (2,33%) and bread rolls (1,50%).

Food and beverages (from 1.00% in April to 0.47% in May) was the group that most contributed to the reduction in the IPCA-15 between the two months. The impact fell from 0.24 to 0.12 percentage points. Another highlight was the sharp drop in the group transportation (from -0.01% to -0.03%). In this group, the decrease in airfares (-3.41%), urban bus fares ( -0.43%) and  gasoline  (-0.36%) stood out.

The group  household articles (from 0.39% to 0.18%) had also influence in the reduction of the month's index, as well as  personal expenses  (from 0.48% to 0.46%) and education  (from 0.10% to 0.08%), which stood a little below the previous month's rate.

Among the indexes by area, the greatest one was registered on Recife (0.76%), where food prices rose 1.33%, quite above the 0.47% average (comprising all the areas surveyed). Conversely, the lowest index occurred in  Salvador (0.23%), under the influence of urban bus fares, whose proper change was at -4.06% due to the reduction by half, since March 31, of the fares charged on Sundays.