Stephen Eisenhammer, Senior Contributing Reporter
RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Thirteen of the most basic household items that form up a Brazilian’s diet went up in price in fifteen of Brazil’s seventeen state capitals in April, according to a report by the Department of Statistics and Socioeconomic Studies (Dieese).
These items form part of the consumer basket, or cesta basica, which is an important price index in Brazil used to measure inflation. The goods that most effected prices in April were soybean oil, beans, milk, bread, tomato and potato the costs of which all rose in the majority of Brazilian state capitals.
The price of potato rose especially in Goiânia, where prices rose 20.87 percent in April, and Belo Horizonte, where the increase was 19.01 percent.
In the case of beans, significant increases were affected by drought, especially in Bahia. The largest increases were found in Fortaleza (19.52 percent), São Paulo (13.56 percent), Belém (12.96 percent), Recife (12.67 percent) and Goiânia (10.30 percent).
São Paulo remains the most expensive Brazilian city in terms of these basic items, with the consumer basket costing the average resident R$227.27.
The news comes as concerns continue to rise over the cost of living in Brazil. According to Dieese’s calculations, in order to afford the basic necessities for one’s family one would have had to earn R$2,329.35 in April. This figure is 3.74 times the real minimum wage which stands at R$622 per month.
Some of the blame for these high prices is placed on the tax system and the high cost of employment which small to medium sized companies struggle with, passing the cost inevitably on to the consumer.
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