The Extended National Consumer Price Index – 15 changed by 0.38% in June, and was lower than in May, when the rate was 0.59%. With this result, the change of IPCA-E (IPCA-15 accumulated in the year was 1.33% in the second quarter of the year, below the figure relative to the equivalent quarter in 2008 (2.06%), and it closed the first semester at 2.49%, also below the rate obtained in the same period in 2008 (3.67%). Similarly, in the last 12 months, the rate of 4.89% was below the 5.44% relative to the immediately previous twelve months. In June 2008, IPCA-15 was 0.90%.

In spite of the rise of food products, by 0.70%, after a rate of 0.29% in May, the reduction of IPCA-15 was 0.21 percentage points, which is equivalent to decrease by 64% from May to June. This has occurred because items which had affected the result last month have faced deceleration. A good example is cigarettes (from 18.42% in May to 0.57% in June), a product whose readjustment was, in general, appropriate according to the May index. The same occurred to pharmaceutical products (from 3.21% to 0.48%) and domestic workers (from 1.35% to 0.80%). The group apparel (from 1.23% to 0.94%) also had a lower result in June, reflecting the beginning of the period of special offers. As a consequence, the group of non-food products changed by 0.29%, being below the may rate (0.68%).

The rise of food products occurred mainly due to pasteurized milk, which is part of Brazilians’ eating habits and which, in the periods between harvests, became 12.20% more expensive. It was the most significant individual contribution in the month: 0.13 percentage points.

In terms of indexes by area, Belo Horizonte had the lowest result (0.12%); and Salvador, the highest one (0.81%).

For the calculation of IPCA-15, prices collected from May 14 to June 15 were compared to those collected from April 14 and May 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.