IPC

The IPC measures variations in the prices of a fixed group of goods and services comprising the regular expenses of families with incomes up to 33 times the monthly minimum wages. Prices are surveyed daily in seven major cities: São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Belo Horizonte, Salvador, Recife, Porto Alegre, and Brasília.

The IPC is calculated based on the consumption expenses obtained from the two-year Family Budget Survey (POF), which IBGE carried out in 2008/2009. Weighting structures that express, in percentages, the monetary importance of the goods and services comprising the IPC sample have been built on information deriving from the survey.

Based on the POF, the goods and services comprising the IPC sample have been classified in seven groups (expense categories), 25 subgroups, 85 items, and 338 subitems.

The eight expense categories are food, housing, apparel, health and personal care, education, reading and recreation, transportation, miscellaneous expenses and communication.

IPC’s computation system also includes a group of special indexes, Third Age Consumer Price Index (IPC-3i) and Class 1 Consumer Price Index (IPC-C1). The first measures variations in the prices of goods and services meant for families whose members are mostly over 60; the second measures price variations for a basket of products and services consumed by families whose income is no more than 2.5 times the monthly minimum wage.

The IPC is based on a four-week collection system, ending on four set dates (07, 15, 22 and 31). Although data are collected weekly, the computation of variations takes into consideration the average of prices collected during the four weeks preceding the closing date. IPC-3i and IPC-CI are monthly indexes, with collection extending from the first to the last day of each month, the same arrangement followed by IPC-C1, but the results for IPC-3i are released not monthly but quarterly.