The Extended National Consumer Price Index -15 (IPCA-15) of April recorded change of 0.77%, being 0.17 percentage points above the result of March, 0.60%...

The Extended National Consumer Price Index -15 (IPCA-15) of April recorded change of 0.77%, being 0.17 percentage points above the result of March, 0.60%. The index accumulated in the year is 3.14% and in the last twelve months, 6.44%, above the figure relative to the immediately previous twelve months (6.13%). In April, the rate was 0.48%.

Food products and beverages

(from 0.46% to 0.79%) and transportation (from 1.11% to 1.45%) were the main groups accounting for the acceleration of IPCA-15 increase from March to April. As a result, the rate of 0.77% had 0.46 percentage points of contribution from both groups, being 0.27 from transportation and 0.19 from food products, what amounts to 60% of the index.

In transportation, the main highlights were fuels, with 5.26% of change and the main individual contribution in the month: 0.24 percentage points, being 0.17 from gasoline (with a change from 0.76% to 4.28%) and 0.07 percentage points from alcohol (with a change from 4.68% to 16.40%). In transportation, it is also important to mention urban bus fares (from 0.83% to 0.62%) and intercity buses (from 1.94% to 0.87%), despite their lower rates in April.

Also in Transportation, other items accounted for significant contributions, among which are: car repair (from -0.12% to 1.65%), used cars (from -1.54% to 1.37%) and parking services (from 0.09% to 4.06%). On the other hand, airline tickets recorded decrease of 9.39% versus 29.16% in March and new cars remained on a downward trend (from -0.29% to -0.39%).

Regarding food products (0.79%), several items contributed to this result, mainly: onions (from 3.67% to 22.56%), pasteurized milk (from -0.38% to 1.58%), potatoes (from 9.66% to 10.05%%), "carioca" beans (from -6.91% to 5.99%), fish and related items (from 0.08% to 2.91%), eggs (from 4.22% to 4.43%), chicken pieces (from 1.53% to 2.45%), ground coffee (from 2.09% to 2.10%), among others. Facing decrease are: meats (from -2.33 % to -0.43%) which remained in decrease, but with deceleration, refined sugar (from -2.55% to -2.49%) and fruits (from 3.33% to -0.81%).

Housing

changed from 0.39% in March to 0.72% in April, being mainly affected by residential rents (from 0.40% to 0.76%) and condominium fees (from 0.60% to 0.99%). Water and sewage fares also contributed to the result of this activity, due to price rise in Brasília (7.23%) from March 1st on, and Curitiba (16.00%) from March 19 on. These results caused the index relative to Housing to increase from 0.41%, in March, to 1.06% in April. The rates of electricity (from 0.22% to 0.59%) increased in the following areas: Rio de Janeiro (10.57%) on March 15, São Paulo (10.60%) on April 1st, Belo Horizonte (3.60%) on April 8th and Porto Alegre (a 3.92%-rise in public illumination from April 1st on).

Household appliances

(from -0.54% to -0.98%), TV, sound and computer equipment (from -0.90% to -0.60%) and furniture (from 1.10% to 0.24%) caused household articles to change from 0.26% to -0.07%.

With the hike of transportation and other items, non-food products changed from 0.64% to 0.76 %.

See the following results by group:

The highest index by area was recorded by Curitiba (1.26%) due to the rise of 13.64% of urban bus fares on March 5 and to the rise of 16.00% of water and sewage fares granted on March 19. The lowest index was that of Brasília (0.42%) where food products changed by 0.17%. The following table presents the results by area:

For the calculation of IPCA-15, prices collected from March 16 to April 12 were compared to those in effect from February 12 to March 15, 2011. The indicator refers to families with monthly income ranging from one 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 is the same as that used for IPCA; the difference lies in the price collection period.