Pulled by foods and medicines, April inflation stands at 0.38%

Consumer price index IPCA, which is used to gauge inflation in Brazil, stood at 0.38 percent in April this year—higher than in the previous month (0.16%) but lower than in April last year (0.61%).

Year to date, the indicator is up 1.8 percent. In 12 months, the IPCA increased 3.69 percent, below the 3.93 percent observed in the 12 months ending in March and within the monetary council’s target range for this year—1.5 to 4.5 percent.

The top two contributors to inflation in April were food and health and personal care. Food and beverages saw a price rise of 0.7 percent.

Chief under health and personal care, which saw a 1.16 percent hike, were pharmaceutical products (up 2.84%), impacted by the authorization to increase the price of medicines by up to 4.5 percent granted on March 31.

Further groups affected include clothing (0.55%), communication (0.48%), transportation (0.14%), personal expenses (0.10%), and education (0.05%).