The Third Age Consumer Price Index (IPC-3i), which measures the variation of the consumer basket of households mostly composed of individuals over 60 years of age, recorded a variation of 1.49% in the first quarter of 2019. In 12 months, the IPC-3i accumulated an increase of 5.37%. With this result, the variation of the indicator was above the cumulative IPC-BR rate, which was 4.88% in the same period.

From the fourth quarter of 2018 to the first quarter of 2019, the IPC-3i reported an increase of 0.69 percentage point, from 0.80% to 1.49%. Four of the eight component expenditure classes of the index reported an increase in their variation rates. The main contribution came from the Housing group, whose rate went from -0.89% to 1.46%. The item with the highest influence on the behavior of this expenditure class was residential electricity bill, which varied by 3.09% in the first quarter, compared to -8.12% in the previous one.

The following groups also contributed to the increase in the CPI-3i rate: Health and Personal Care (1.14% to 1.28%), Transport (-0.20% to 0.14%), and Miscellaneous Expenses (0.31% to 0.69%). For each of these expenditure classes, it is worth mentioning the behavior of the items: health plan and insurance (1.99% to 1.91%), gasoline (-4.92% to -1.32%), and registry office (0.23% to 3.62%).

In contrast, the groups Education, Reading and Recreation (2.85% to 1.09%), Clothing (1.46% to -0.32%) and Communication (0.22% to 0.17%) presented decreases in their variation rates. In these expenditure classes, the largest decreases were observed in the following items: airfare (30.61% to -11.18%), clothing (1.73% to -0.18%), and residential telephone bill (-0.02% to -0.73%).

The Food group repeated the variation rate of 3.49% reported in the last calculation. The main influences were from the following items: dairy products (-6.91% to 1.56%), upwards, and vegetables and legumes (52.48% to 21.69%), downwards.

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