Brazil
Official title
Indice de Preços ao Consumidor Amplo - IPCA (Consumer Price
Index).
Scope
The index is computed monthly and covers households in all metropolitan
areas of the country (including Brasilia and Goiânia) and with monthly
incomes of between one and 40 times the minimum wage.
Official base
December 1990 = 100.
Source of weights
The weights and selected items were derived from a national household
expenditure survey conducted between August 1974 and August 1975,
covering a sample of 55,000 households in all metropolitan areas of the
country. The weights were updated using the results of a household
expenditure survey conducted from March 1987 to February 1988.
Weights and composition
| Major groups
| Number of items
| Weights
| Approximate number of price quotations
|
| Food
| 169 | 25.19 | 57000
|
| Housing (incl. light)
| 23 | 14.97 | 11000
|
| Household items
| 32 | 4.88 | 11000
|
| Clothing and footwear
| 38 | 7.32 | 16000
|
| Transport and communications
| 21 | 16.59 | 8000
|
| Health and personal care
| 30 | 13.26 | 21000
|
| Personal expenditure
| 33 | 17.79 | 14000
|
| Total
| 346 | 100.00 | 138000
|
Household consumption expenditure
Excluded from the weights is expenditure that increases savings,
e.g. the purchase of a house, telephone, etc.; direct taxes, real
estate taxes, interests, insurances, debts paid off, credit cards,
reimbursement of loans, purchase of construction materials for improving
dwellings; expenditure concerning birthdays, baptisms, weddings,
carnivals, Christmas, etc.; and owner-occupied dwellings. Durable goods
are treated in the same way as other items and are taken into account in
expenditure for the 12-month reference period. Credit purchases are
taken as payments made during the reference period of the survey.
Second-hand purchases of vehicles are included in the weights. Life
insurance premiums are excluded.
Method of data collection
Depending on the item, prices are collected by agents monthly or
annually, from retail outlets or service establishments in 11
metropolitan areas. No mail questionnaires are sent. Certain tariffs
fixed by the Government, e.g. for electricity, water, gas, transport
and communication, are collected when they change. Discounts are taken
into account. All prices refer to those paid by consumers.
Housing
The sample of dwellings is obtained from a national survey of dwellings
and rent quotations are obtained each month. Owner-occupied housing is
not included in the weights.
Specification of varieties
There are detailed specifications for most items, describing the brand,
packing, size, quality, unit of measurement, etc. For some other items
where this is not possible, specifications are not completely described.
Substitution, quality change, etc.
No account is taken of quality changes in items. New items appearing in
the market are introduced when the specifications are revised. If an
item disappears temporarily from the market, its price is imputed on the
basis of the price movements of the remaining items in the same
subgroup.
Seasonal items
For items such as vegetables and fruits, seasonal fluctuations
are taken into account by using monthly items and monthly weights. The
Paasche formula is used to calculate the index for seasonal items.
Computation
The index is computed according to the Laspeyres formula as a weighted
arithmetic average with fixed base, using weights corresponding to March
1987-March 1988. Averages of price relatives between the current and
previous periods are used to compute the indices.
To obtain the national index, metropolitan areas indices are first
computed and combined, using weights based on the estimated
total income in each metropolitan area.
Other information
The Fundaçao Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística (IBGE) also
calculates a National Consumer Price Index (INPC) relating to households
receiving one to eight times the monthly minimum wage and a National
Consumer Price Index relating to households receiving up to twice
the monthly minimum wage.
Organisation and publication
Fundaçao Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística (IBGE):
Indicadores
(Rio de Janeiro).
Idem: Sistema Nacional de Indices de Preços ao Consumidor,
Métodos de Cálculo
, 1984.
Idem: Estructura Básica de Ponderaçoes
, 1983.
Idem: Guia de campo para a Pesquisa de Especificaçao de
Productos e Serviços
, Janeiro 1980.
Idem: Métodos para o Trabalho de Campo
, 1983.
Idem: Manual de Implantaçao
, November 1979.
Idem: Para compreender o INPC
, 1981.