RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – As measured by the Broad National Consumer Price Index (IPCA), Brazil’s official inflation stood at 1.16% in September, after 0.87% in August. It is the highest result for the month since 1994 – when the variation was 1.53%, soon after the Real Plan was launched.
The accumulated result over 12 months reached the double-digit mark, with an appreciation of 10.25%. It is the highest rate for a 12 months period since February 2016 (10.36%). The information was released by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE).
The September rate is also the highest monthly result since December 2020 (1.35%). The most significant impact (0.41 percentage points) and the most critical variation (2.56%) came from the Housing group, which accelerated in relation to August (0.68%). Electricity prices rose 6.47% within the group.
By the accumulated indicator over 12 months, the IPCA stood at 10.25% in September, against the 9.68% collected through August. The result was well above the inflation target established by the Central Bank (BC) of 3.75% for 2021 – the target has a tolerance margin of 1.5 percentage points, up or down.
IBGE calculates the Brazilian official inflation based on the consumption basket of families with an income of 40 minimum wages, covering ten metropolitan regions, in addition to the cities of Goiânia, Campo Grande, Rio Branco, São Luís, Aracaju, and Brasília.
Of the nine expenditure classes used to calculate the IPCA, three accelerated between August and September 2021. Higher inflation rates between July and August were observed in housing (from 0.68% to 2.56%), transportation (from 1.46% to 1.82%), and health and personal care (from -0.04% to 0.39%).
On the other hand, lower rates were observed in food and beverages (from 1.39% to 1.02%), household items (from 0.99% to 0.90%), clothing (from 1.02% to 0.31%), personal expenses (from 0.64% to 0.56%), education (from 0.28% to -0.01%), and communication (from 0.23% to 0.07%).
Individually, the most significant impact came from electric energy, up 6.37% and accounting for 0.31 percentage points of the 1.16% rate. Gasoline had the second-largest impact, rising 2.32% and accounting for 0.14 percentage points.