Education expenses increased 8.76% on average between February 2016 and January 2017, according to FGV’s Brazilian Institute of Economics (IBRE). The study puts total expenses 3.72 percentage points above the average inflation rate calculated by the Consumer Price Index (CPI/FGV), accruing a high of 5.04% over the same period.

The highest spikes were nursery (12.31%), preschool (11.13%) and primary school (10.95%). Parents shopping for school supplies before school starts had to put up with a 9.31% upswing in prices. On the other hand, the prices for textbooks (5.13%) and other books (5.72%) were close to the average inflation, with only a slight price increase.

High school courses (10.92%), university entrance or civil service exam prep courses (9.55%), graduate courses (9.53%) and higher education (9.2%) also helped drive education inflation upwards. The items music and dance courses (8.28%), foreign language courses (7.23%) and computer courses (6.43%), magazines in general (7.04%), newspapers (5.15%) and school transport (6.66%) also grew above inflation. The only item show by the CPI with variation below inflation was miscellaneous courses, up 2.83%.