Rio, 1/13/2004 (Agência Brasil - ABr) - The first survey of retail prices for 2004, the IPC-S for the period between December 6, 2003, and January 5, 2004, found that prices rose 0.37%, down 0.09 percentage points from the last survey (which ended on December 30).

Changes have been made in the survey, conducted by the Getulio Vargas Foundation (FGV), to include variations in food prices affected by the exchange rate and housing costs affected by increases above inflation.

The FGV reports that pressure on prices came from the Food, Education, Reading and Recreation segments of the survey (accounting for 60% of the price increases).

The latest IPC-S survey found that in four out of twelve large urban centers there were smaller price increases, led by Rio de Janeiro, where price increases fell from 0.66% to 0.36%. But the lowest inflation for the period was in São Paulo, 0.18%. The highest was in Belem, 1.11%. (AB)