The Extended Consumer Price Index-15 (IPCA-15) changed 0.14% in August and stood 0.03 percentage points below the rate of 0.17% in July. As a result, the cumulative rate in the year stayed at 4.32%, above the rate of 3.69% in the same period of 2013. Considering the last 12 months, the IPCA-15 stayed at 6.49%, below the immediately previous 12 months (6.51%). In August 2013, the rate was 0.16%. The complete data of IPCA-15 can be accessed on page      

www.ibge.gov.br/english/estatistica/indicadores/precos/ipca15/defaultipca15.shtm.

By rising 4.25%, electricity led the list of impacts in August and held 0.12 percentage points of the index. It was influenced by the electricity fares in the metropolitan areas of Curitiba (23.85%), reflecting the adjustment of 24.86% in force since July 22 and retroactive to June 24; São Paulo (9.55%), which adjusted the fare by 18.00% from July 4 onwards; and Belém (6.80%), which adjusted it by 34.41% on August 7.

As a result, the rise of electricity, together with other items, took the expenses with housing (from 0.48% in July to 1.44% in August) to the highest group result in August.

Housing was also pressed by the expenses with cleaning products (1.47%), water and sewage fees (1.37%), condominium fees (1.36%), residential rent (0.66%) and manpower for small repairs (0.66%). The metropolitan areas of Fortaleza (5.49%), whose adjustment was of 7.30% on July 6, São Paulo (3.24%) and Rio de Janeiro (2.92%), which adjusted the fare by 6.75% from August 1 onwards, were responsible for the rise of water and sewage. São Paulo´s figure (3.24%) took into account the smaller effect of the Incentive Plan for Reduction of Water Consumption, which applies a discount of 30% to those water and sewage consumers who decrease the monthly consumption by 20%.

The item manpower for small repairs (0.66%) had its computation changed due to the lack of information of the Monthly Employment Survey (PME) in Salvador and Porto Alegre in May and June. This procedure used the most recent income available for each area, referring to April, in order to estimate the trend of the income series for August. As a result, four months were estimated ahead of April instead of two, as currently adopted in the methodology. The other areas followed the regular procedure stated in the technical note 02/2007: the income was estimated two months ahead based on May´s income effectively collected by PME.

Likewise, the item domestic workers  (1.28%) followed the procedure for manpower to compute the areas of Salvador and Porto Alegre. Even rising 1.28% and exerting the second highest impact on the index in August (0.05 percentage points), the item workers did not prevent the group of personal expenses (from 1.74% in July to -0.67% in August) to drop. As the hotel fares dropped 23.54%, they exerted the major downward impact (-0.13 percentage points).

Together with personal expenses,  the groups of  food and beverages (from -0.03% in July to -0.32% in August), wearing apparel  (from zero to -0.18%) and communication (-0.10% to -0.84%) added to the drop in August. Concerning food, a number of products became cheaper, especially potatoes (-20.42%), tomatoes (-16.47%), carioca beans (-5.49%), green vegetables (-5.13%), soybean oil (-3.17%) and black beans (-3.11%).

The other groups, including housing increased their prices. By contributing with 0.04 percentage points,  airfare (10.27%) exerted the third highest impact in August and was the highlight in transportation (from -0.85% in July to 0.20% in August), whereas other courses (computers, language, etc.), which rose 1.06%, was the highlight in education (from -0.07% to 0.42%), which in turn reflected the data collected in August in order to capture the reality of the second semester of the school year.

The highest regional index was recorded in Curitiba (0.50%), due to the rise of electricity (23.85%), as a result of the adjustment of 24.86% in force since July 22 and retroactive to June 24. The lowest index was registered in Salvador (-0.38%), where electricity dropped 6.55%, reflecting the reduction of 83.49% in the PIS/PASEP/COFINS taxes. The prices of fuels (-5.71%) also contributed to the low index of Salvador.

In order to estimate IPCA-15, the prices collected from July 15 to August 13 (reference) were compared with the ones in force from June 12 to July 14 (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 lies in the period of price collection and in the geographic coverage.