IPCA

Driven by lower food and beverage prices, inflation in the year accumulates the lowest since the creation of the Real Plan in 1994

midst the stabilization of the economy, the Extended Consumer Price Index (IPCA), which measures the country's official inflation, varied by 0.19% in August and reached a 2.46% increase in the last 12 months, the lowest result in this basis of comparison since February 1999.

For August, the performance is the lowest since 2010. With this, from January to August, the indicator accumulates a 1.62% increase, the lowest variation for the period since the implementation of the Real Plan in 1994. The data were released on Wednesday (6), by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE).

According to the agency, contributed to the result of the month the fall in the prices of food and beverages, which fell for the fourth time followed to 1.07%. Communications prices also became cheaper and contributed to the month's performance; the group's fall was 0.56% in August.

In the case of food, which corresponds to 25% of household expenditures, the drop was caused by lower prices for carioca beans (-14.86%), tomato (-13.85%), crystal sugar (-5.90 %), long life milk (-4.26%), fruits (-2.57%) and meats (-1.75%).

In the communication group, the drop was caused by the lowering of cell phone bills, which fell, on average, 1.57%.

Commenting on the positive result, Finance Minister Henrique Meirelles highlighted the fall in food prices and assessed that the current economic scenario has been favoring household consumption.