Curitiba registers the lowest inflation in Brazil.
The Curitiba Metropolitan Region recorded the lowest inflation in the country between January and May 2013, as measured by the Broad Consumer Price Index (IPCA); the variation was 2,44%, compared to 2,88% for the country as a whole (higher than the 2,24% recorded in the same period last year); this data indicates price variations of goods and services consumed by families with urban monthly incomes between one and 40 minimum wages.
Paraná News Agency - The Metropolitan Region of Curitiba (RMC) recorded the lowest inflation in the country between January and May 2013, as measured by the Broad Consumer Price Index (IPCA). The variation was 2,44%, compared to 2,88% for the country as a whole (higher than the 2,24% recorded in the same period last year).
The index has been compiled by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) since 1980, in nine metropolitan regions (Belém, Recife, Fortaleza, Salvador, Belo Horizonte, Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, Curitiba and Porto Alegre), plus Goiânia and Brasília. The data indicates price variations of goods and services consumed by families with urban monthly income between one and 40 minimum wages, regardless of the source.
While the average Brazilian IPCA (Consumer Price Index) was driven by food and beverages, with an increase of 5,98%, in the RMC (Metropolitan Region of Campinas) this item showed growth of 4,05%, the lowest in Brazil, which can be attributed to the expansion of agricultural supply in the state, including horticultural products. "It should be noted that the RMC was the only region to show a decrease in fuel prices (-0,83%), versus an increase of 3,89% nationally," comments the CEO of the Paraná Institute for Economic and Social Development (Ipardes), Gilmar Mendes Lourenço.
ACCUMULATED – For the accumulated indicator over twelve months up to May, a signal of annual inflation, the rise in prices in Brazil remained at the upper limit of the 6,5% target, stipulated by the National Monetary Council (CMN) and monitored by the monetary authority (Central Bank). In the RMC (Metropolitan Region of Campinas), the increase was 6,18%, the third lowest in the country, surpassed only by the metropolitan regions of São Paulo (5,85%) and Porto Alegre (5,90%).
"The less intense annual inflation rate in the RMC stems from it having experienced the lowest increase in the country in the prices of food and beverages (11,56%), compared to a variation of 13,53% for the average of the other regions monitored by the IBGE," assesses Mendes Lourenço.
The president of Ipardes believes that the 4,84% increase in public transportation in the RMC, significantly higher than the Brazilian average (2,33%), despite the maintenance of state government subsidies, can be largely explained by the political suppression of fares in some capital cities, at the request of the federal government, in a somewhat haphazard attempt to curb, albeit artificially, the inflationary spiral.