The inflation in the southeastern Brazilian city of São Paulo, kept its downward trend in the second week of August, increasing a mere 0.07%.
The Consumer Price Index (IPC), revealed by the Economic Research Institute Foundation (Fipe), stayed below the one registered in the previous week (0.19%).
According to the numbers of the institute, the inflation in São Paulo since May is below 0.35%. Once again, the main reason for the low inflation was the group food, which had negative variation of 0.92% and was the only item checked by Fipe that registered deflation.
The prices of products and services related to health continued to lead the inflation, rising 0.87%. In spite of being the group presenting the biggest increase, health is already giving signs of deceleration in August. In the first week of the month, Fipe had already detected an inflation of 1.50%. The group transportation also had a considerable increase, of 0.74%.
The other items that compose Fipe’s price index had the following variation: personal expenses (0.50%), housing (0.11%), clothing (0.11%) and education (0.07%). The index is calculated weekly by Fipe, which checks families’ expenses with income up to 20 minimum wages in the city of São Paulo.
Harvest Blues
Brazil’s harvest of grains might reach 113,507 million tons this year, representing a reduction of 4.91% when compared to the 2004 harvest, which produced 119,370 million tons.
The data are part of the seventh estimate for the 2005 agricultural harvest released today by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE).
The July Agricultural Production Systematic Survey shows that the planted area this year should grow 0.50% in comparison to last year, reaching 48 million hectares. Soybean and corn, which together represent 76% of the Brazilian production of grains, are the highlights.
ABr
