Rio, - Inflation as measured by the Weekly Consumer Price Index (Índice de Preços ao Consumidor Semanal) (IPC-S), which is conducted by the Fundação Getúlio Vargas (FGV), for the four-week period ending 2 February, found that prices rose 1.22%, a jump of 0.22 percentage points over the prior period surveyed. According to the FGV, the reason for the rise was an increase in prices in the Food, and Education, Reading and Recreation segments, which strongly influence the index because of their weight - the two groups accounted for around 80% of the inflation in the last 30 days.

Removing the Food, Education, Reading and Recreation segments from the index would have resulted in an increase in the IPC-S of only 0.25%. As it was, Education, Reading and Recreation rose 3.52%, and Food was up 2.36%. (AB)