This is a translation of the original article in Portuguese. Read the original (Português).
The food and beverages group rose 1.04% in October, well above the overall inflation index, which came in at 0.14%. The data come from the IPCA, the consumer price index calculated by IBGE, Brazil’s statistics agency, and the increase in food is the largest in four years, according to the newspaper Jornal de Brasília.
Tomatoes, onions, rice and meats led the increases. Year to date, food prices have already climbed 5.46%.
The IPCA’s manager attributed the rise in tomato and onion prices to weather problems, such as excessive rain, which affect the supply of these products and push prices up.
The result shows a gap between average inflation and what consumers feel at the supermarket. The overall index has slowed and reached a low level, but the cost of food, which weighs on family budgets every day, has risen far more. In practice, looking only at the headline IPCA hides the squeeze at the dinner table.
This burden is heavier for lower-income households, since food takes up a large share of their spending. The scenario adds to a picture of high interest rates and indebtedness, which already limits the room to maneuver for a large part of Brazilians.
Tomatoes are one of the clearest examples of the pressure: the product has risen by close to 90% this year, according to the index’s tally. The combination of unusual rainfall and rising prices for staples such as rice and meat helps explain why the sense of high living costs persists even as overall inflation slows.
The IPCA is Brazil’s official inflation indicator and measures price changes for a basket of goods and services consumed by households. Because it is an average, it includes items that rise alongside others that stay stable or fall, which can dampen the perception of specific groups, such as food.
Reporting from Jornal de Brasília (p. 12, caderno nacional: Inflação de alimentos em outubro é a maior em quatro anos).
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