Marli Moreira Reporter Agência Brasil

São Paulo – One of many metrics used to measure inflation in Brazil is a basket of basic, essential food items (“cesta básica – alimentos considerados essenciais na mesa do brasileiro”). No cheese and wine, no caviar, no pâté de foie gras. The basket consists of rice, beans, cooking oil (soy), sugar, flour (wheat), coffee, salt, flour of cassava (“mandioca”), eggs, tomato sauce, spaghetti (“macarrão”) and milk [note: the number of items in the basket varies; in some parts of the country there are eleven items, in others up to 13 items. Sometimes, potatoes or tomatoes may be included].

In its monthly report, the union-linked Department of Statistics and Socioeconomic Studies (“Dieese”) found that the Brazilian cesta básica had risen in price in 14 out of the 17 capital cities it surveyed in March.

The biggest jump in price, 6.19%, was in Natal, Rio Grande do Norte. There, the cesta básica consists of 13 items that will set the consumer back R$234.85. In Salvador, Bahia, the cost of the basket rose 4.90% to R$220.75. In Vitória, Espirito Santo, the price of the basket rose 4.88% to R$258,32. And in Rio de Janeiro, the basket was 4.33% more expensive at R$259.80.

The most expensive cesta básica in Brazil is in São Paulo, where it costs R$267.58, after an increase in March of 2.45%.

The three capital cities where the price of the cesta básica fell were Recife, down 0.77% at R$209.77; Manaus down 0.54% at R$251.38; and Brasilia down 0.05% at R$250.35.

For many years Dieese has also released what it calls the ideal minimum wage (“salário ideal”), which would allow a family to meet all its basic needs. According to Dieese, the ideal salary went from R$2,194 in February to R$2,247 in March; in other words, 4.12 times the minimum wage of R$545) the government proposed and Congress recently approved for 2011.

Over the last twelve months, all the capital cities surveyed had cumulative increases in the price of the cesta básica that vary between 19.99% (Fortaleza) and 10.87% (Belo Horizonte).

Dieese says the cesta básica price villains in March were coffee, soybean oil and tomato (and potato in some places), which all rose in at least 14 of the cities surveyed.

Allen Bennett – translator/editor The News in English

Link - Cesta básica fica mais cara em 14 das 17 capitais pesquisadas pelo Dieese