The National Extended Consumer Price Index - 15 (IPCA - 15) changed by 0.25% in March, below the rate of 0.53% in February. The IPCA-E (IPCA-15 accumulated in January, February and March) was 1.44%, well below the result of the same period of 2011 (2.35%). Considering the last 12 months, the index was 5.61%, below the previous 12 months (5.98%), as well. In March of 2011, the rate was 0.60%.

The complete publication of IPCA-15 can be accessed at www.ibge.gov.br/english/estatistica/indicadores/precos/inpc_ipca/defaultinpc.shtm

The complete publication of IPCA-E can be accessed at www.ibge.gov.br/english/estatistica/indicadores/precos/ipcae/default.shtm

The considerable reduction of the seasonal rise of the education group, which recorded 5.66% in February and was revised down to 0.51% in March, led to the month over month contraction of the IPCA-15 (from 0.53% to 0.25%).

As a result, the non-food products changed from 0.60% in February to 0.26% in March.

The prices of food products kept decelerating, coming from 0.29% in February to 0.22% in March. Meat dropped –1.57%. This rate was the main negative contributor to the index of March, though smaller than the 2.10% fall of the previous month : --0.04 percentage points. Other food items also showed a downward trend. The negative highlights were tomato (from –3.82% to –16.33%), crystallized sugar (from –1.82% to –2.57%), refined sugar (from –2.72% to –2.35%) and cheese (from 0.57% % to –0.85%). Conversely the positive highlights were onion (from 1.13% to 15.36%), black beans (from 9.76% to 7.68%) and fruits (from 0.58% to 4.70%). 

The groups of household articles (from 0.22% to –0.31%), communication (from 0.03% to –0.49%) and personal expenses (from 1.07% to 0.60%), all down, also contributed substantially to the deceleration of the IPCA-15 of the month.

Considering the last group, the rate was more moderate, although domestic personnel (from 1.78% to 1.38%) presented the highest impact on the month, 0.05 pp. 

Expenses with housing slightly reduced in relation to the previous month (from 0.48% to 0.44%). That was attributable to the deceleration in the pace of growth of housing rent (from 1.20% to 0.45%) and maintenance fees (from 0.68% to 0.48%). 

Conversely, wearing apparel (from -0.33% to 0.16%) and transportation (from –0.05% to 0.11%) rose in relation to the previous month, while health and personal care (from 0.53% to 0.16%) was virtually stable.

Transportation saw a month on month rise mainly driven by air tickets (from –8.83% to 1.35%), gasoline (from –0.30% to –0.18%), ethanol (from –2.38% to -1.48%) and new automobiles (from –0.45% to –0.04%). As to apparel, the rise can be attributable to the new season.

The results of all the groups of products and services surveyed are shown in the following table.

Among the regional indexes, the highest ones were from Recife (0.82%), attributable to the increase in the expenses with domestic personnel (7.81%) and intermunicipal (6.83%) and urban (2.04%) bus fares.

The lowest index was registered by Rio de Janeiro (-0.06%) influenced by domestic personnel (-3.22%) and food products (-0.02%). The following table shows the results by region:

In order to calculate IPCA-15, the prices were collected from February 11 to March 14 (reference) were compared with the ones from January 14 to February 10 (base).

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 is in the period of price collection. IPCA-E corresponds to IPCA-15 accumulated in periods.