Tomatoes, beans and gasoline lead March to the highest level IPCA since 2015

São Paulo – the official inflation in Brazil, calculated by the national consumer price index (IPCA), stayed at 0.75% in March. This is the highest rate for the month since 2015, when it came to 1.32%, according to figures released on Wednesday (10) by the Brazilian Institute of geography and statistics (IBGE). In the last 12 months, the IPCA accumulated high 4.58%, well above the market estimate for the rate in 2019, according to the latest report Focus, 3.90%. The goal of this year's inflation, set by the national monetary Council (CMN), is 4.25% with tolerance interval between 2.75% and 5.75%. Tomatoes, beans and gasoline weighed all groups surveyed in the IPCA rose in price, except communications (-0.22%). But the greatest villains of high were the segments of food and drinks and transport. With the advances of 1.37 percent and 1.44 percent, respectively, the two groups accounted for 80% of the index of the month. In the first group, the highlights were tomatoes (31.84%), English (21.11%) potato, beans-carioca (12.93%) and fruits (4.26%). The price of the beans, according to the survey, more than doubled in the first quarter, reaching the highest high since the Real plan for the period, due to problems at harvest and low inventories. The transport group accelerated in March, after deflation of 0.34 percent in February, driven mainly by high of 3.49% in fuels. The result was influenced by the increase in the price of gasoline (2.88%) and ethanol (7.02%). "The March index reflects in part the 10.82% increase in the price of gasoline at the refinery, implemented by Petrobrás between February 27 and March 29, the IPCA collection period", explains the Research Manager, Fernando Gonçalves, in a survey published on Wednesday. According to the IBGE, further contributions to the positive rate in the Transport Group came from the increase in prices in airfares (7.29%) and city buses (0.90%).