The Extended Consumer Price Index-15 (IPCA-15) in April is 0.36%, significantly above the result of 0.11% obtained in March. The rate accumulated in the last twelve months is 5.40%, below the rate accumulated in the immediately previous twelve months (5.65%). In April 2008, IPCA-15 was 0.59%.

In April, IPCA-15 (0.36%) was 0.25 percentage points above the rate of 0.11% registered in March. From one month to the other, the main contributions were those of domestic workers (1.82%) and cigarettes (6.62%), both with 0.06 percentage points of contribution and together, accounting for 0.12 percentage points of the index. These items, together with cooking gas (3.20%) and medicines (1.13%), each with 0.03 percentage points, account for 0.18 percentage points in the month. As a consequence, the group of non-food products changed by 0.39%, being above the March rate (0.08%).

In terms of food products, the rate was very close to that of the previous month, changing from de 0.21%, in March to 0.20% in April. Several important items for family consumption remained more expensive from one month to the other, for example fish (from 0.94% to 5.46%), refined sugar (from 10.72% to 7.81%), eggs (from 3.66% to 9.04%) and potatoes (from 1.64% to 10.22%). On the other hand, maintaining the rate of the group Food Products and Beverages at a similar level to the previous one, remained on a downward trend: rice (from -1.33% to -1.84%), meats (from -3.01% to -1.98%), “carioca beans” (from -10.17% to -11.38%), black beans (from -7.78% to -12.59%).

Among the indexes by area, the highest one was registered in Curitiba (0.56%), where several items were above the national average, being the highlights cooking gas (6.17%), cleaning articles (1.09%), hairdresser’s (5.56%) and manicure services (4.49%), besides the group Food products and beverages (0.61%). The lowest index was that of the metropolitan area of Belo Horizonte (0.12%), where the group food products (-0.31%) and some others got cheaper.

 For the calculation of IPCA-15, prices collected between March 14 and April 13 were compared to those collected between February 12 and March 13. The indicator refers to families with income of 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 lies in the period of data collection. IPCA-E is IPCA-15 accumulated in periods.