Rio, March 2, 2004 (Agência Brasil - ABr) - Inflation as measured by the Weekly Consumer Price Index (IPC-S) for the week that ended February 23 registered a variation of 0.26%, 0.32% less than the 0.58% detected a week earlier. According to the Getúlio Vargas Foundation's Brazilian Economics Institute (Ibre), which is responsible for compiling the index, this is the smallest increase in the IPC-S since the week ending November 3, 2003.

According to the Ibre, the biggest contributions to the deceleration of inflation came from the Food group (from 0.72% to 0.12%) and the Education, Reading, and Recreation group (from 2.12% to 0.77%). The only reason that the deceleration was not generalized is that the Housing and Health and Personal Care groups rose by 0.02% and 0.01%, respectively.

The heaviest upward influence on the IPC-S is currently exercised by the Housing group, which contributed 0.07%.

Clothing went from -0.73% to -0.96%. Transportation fell from 0.66% to 0.47%, while Miscellaneous Expenses fell from 1.17% to 0.90%. (DAS)