Official inflation down to 0.26% in May this year
Brazil’s consumer price index IPCA—which is used to gauge the country’s official inflation—stood at 0.26 percent in May this year. The rate is lower than those observed in April this year (0.43%) and May last year (0.46%).
According to data released Tuesday (Jun. 10) by the statistics bureau IBGE, Brazil’s official inflation has accumulated rates of 2.75 percent in the year and 5.32 percent in 12 months.
Housing expenditures had the biggest impact on the month’s inflation rate, with a price rise of 1.19 percent, mainly driven by the surge in residential electricity (3.62%). Also on the rise were the costs of piped gas (0.25%) and water and sewage (0.77%).
On the other hand, deflation of 0.37 percent in transportation and a slowdown in food inflation—which went down from 0.82 in April to 0.17 percent in May—contributed to the decline in the month’s official inflation.
In transportation (which saw deflation of 0.38 percent in April), prices fell for airline tickets (-11.31%), gasoline (-0.66%), diesel oil (-1.30%), ethanol (-0.91%), and vehicle gas (-0.83%).
Under food, the main drivers responsible for the fall in inflation were the drop in prices of tomatoes (-13.52%), rice (-4%), chicken eggs (-3.98%), and fruit (-1.67%).
