The National Extended Consumer Price Index 15 (IPCA-15) changed by 0,60% in May, almost half of the 1,07% rate of April. With that result, the cumulative indicator in the year went to 5,23%, well above the rate of 3,51% recorded in the the same period of 2014. In the cumulative index over the last 12 months, the result was 8,24%, close to the one seen for the 12 previous months (8,22%), the highest rate since January 2004 (8,46%). In May 2014, IPCA-15 was at 0.58% The complete IPCA-15 data can be accessed at www.ibge.gov.br/home/estatistica/indicadores/precos/ipca15/defaultipca15.shtm.

The IPCA-15 of May registered a far below result in relation to April, mainly because of electricity. With a weight of 3.88% in the household expenditure, the electricity bills increased 13.02% in April, whereas, in May, the change was of 1.41%. That made the index for Housing fall from 3.66% to 0.85% (see the table below).

The group Health and Personal Care (1.79%) was the highest in the month. The highlights were pharmaceuticals, whose prices increased, on average, 3.71% due to the increase in force since March 31. This item led in terms of impact, accounting for 0.12 percentage points (p.p.) of May's IPCA 15.

The lowest result in the group occurred in transportation, with -0.45%. That was due to the 23.61% drop in the item airfares, whose impact of -0.10 p.p. was the lowest. Besides, fuels (-0.83%) became cheaper. From one month to the other, the liter of gasoline was 0.63% cheaper and that of ethanol decreased 2.11%.

In food products the high was of 1.05%, with a highlight to the price of tomatoes (19.79%) onions (18.83%), carrots (10.45%), milk (2.64%), French roll (2.23%), soybean oil (2.17%), meat (1.40%), chicken pieces (1.30%). The Metropolitan Area of Fortaleza registered the highest increase for this group (1.71%), whereas the lowest change was seen in Salvador (0.33%).

The other groups had no relevant highlights; however, it is worth mentioning that the majority of them registered a slowdown in the growth rate from April to May.

The highest regional index was recorded in the Metropolitan Area of Fortaleza (1.23%) under the influence of electricity (7.44%), which reflected the increase of 8.58%, in force since April 22, as well as the already mentioned high of 1.71% in food prices. The lowest index was recorded in Brasília (0.14%), where airfare, with a drop of 23.72% and weight of 1.83%, caused an impact of -0.43 percentage points (see the table below).

In order to estimate IPCA-15, prices were collected from April 14 to May 14 of 2015 (reference) and compared with those in effect from March 14 to April 13 of 2015 (base). The indicator refers to families with monthly income of 1 to 40 minimum wages and it encompasses the Metropolitan Areas 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 and in the geographic coverage.