April's official inflation retreats to lowest monthly level in 22 years

The prices of goods and services in the country had deflation in April and, with this, official inflation reached the lowest monthly level in almost 22 years, according to the IPCA (Broad Consumer Price Index), released on Friday (8) by IBGE (Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics). In April, the rate stood at -0.31%, the lowest level ever recorded since August 1998, when it stood at -0.51%. In practice, prices have decreased. The result was pulled by the drop in fuel prices (-9.59%), which became cheaper because of the coronavirus pandemic. Due to the social isolation adopted in several cities in the country to contain the advance of the virus, the demand for gasoline, diesel and ethanol fell and, with this, prices were impacted. The research manager, Pedro Kislanov, says that gasoline was the main fuel with falling prices. In the ibge data collection period, there were two announcements of a decrease in the price of gasoline: on March 28, of 5%, and on April 20, of 8%. In contrast to fuel, food prices became more expensive in April. Home food, which had increased 1.4% in March, rose 2.24% in April. The highlights were the high onion (34.83%), the potato (22.81%), the carioca beans (17.29%) and long-life milk (9.59%). Meats were lighter in their pockets for the fourth month in a row. "There is a relationship between the natural supply constraint in the first months of the year and the increased demand caused by the covid-19 pandemic, with people going more to market, cooking more at home," Kislanov said. Inflation for eating out of the home also accelerated in the period, influenced by the high snack. From January to April 2020, official inflation accumulates a high of 0.22%. In the last 12 months, 2.4%. Ibge reports that the index was calculated by comparing the prices collected in the period from March 31 to April 29, 2020 (reference) with the prices in force in the period from March 3 to 30, 2020 (base). Because of the pandemic, the collection is being done by searches carried out on websites, by phone or by email.