Inflation slows down in November, but still weighs more for low-income, says Ipea

The Inflation Indicator by Income Range, carried out by the Institute for Applied Economic Research (Ipea), shows that the inflation rate in Brazil decelerated for all income groups during the month of November. The survey was released this Wednesday (15).

The index shows that the deceleration of the indicator was more significant for the poorest population in the country, with an income of up to R$ 1808.79. For this group, the index suffered deflation from 1.35% in October to 0.65% in November.

The lowest inflation rate for low-income people in the month, according to IPEA, is related to the improvement in the behavior of food and beverage groups, with emphasis on the reduction in the price of cereals (-3.2%), meats (-1.4%) and milk and dairy products (-1.5%).

According to the survey, the second segment that contributed most to the drop in inflation in the lowest-income group in the country was personal hygiene items, which suffered deflation of 3% in November.

For the group with greater purchasing power, with monthly income above R$ 4,506.47, the index was stable in November and remained at 1.10% in the month. For this group, the relief in their pockets was mainly due to the reduction in the price of 6.1% of airline tickets and 1.8% of car rentals.

However, the rise in the price of gasoline (7.4%) and ethanol (10.5%) did not make the inflationary drop so encouraging.

“The food group will always weigh more on lower-income families. Therefore, when food prices drop, it directly impacts this group”, said André Braz, economist at the Getúlio Vargas Foundation (IBGE).

“People with greater purchasing power spend on other things, such as entertainment, for example, and with that, food represents a smaller portion of monthly consumption.”

Despite the best results for the poorest population in November, the annual scenario still shows
a greater prejudice for this group.

According to IPEA, in the last twelve months, very low-income families registered an increase in inflation of 11.0%, higher than that registered in the higher income segment, which presented an indicator of 9.7%.