Fuel and health plan prices raised Ipea’s forecast for the 2023 inflation calculated by the IPCA.| Photo: Marcello Casal Jr/Agência Brasil

The Institute for Applied Economic Research (Ipea) announced, this Tuesday (28), that the expectation for inflation in 2023 was raised to 5.6% in comparison with the projection in December of last year for the Extended Consumer Price Index (IPCA), which guides the decisions of the Central Bank (see in full).

According to the institute, the increase of 0.07 percentage points was due to the less favorable performance of managed prices and services, mainly those related to education. The increase in fuel prices is pointed out as one of the reasons for the increase in inflation expectations for the year.

Still according to Ipea, there were also readjustments above expectations for health plans in the first two months of the year. As a result, the projected inflation of monitored goods and services increased to 8.2%, compared to the 5.6% forecast in December 2022.

Finally, the more favorable performance of food products in the first two months of the year and the improvement in expectations for the Brazilian harvest in 2023 caused the expected food inflation for the year to fall from 5.2% to 4.5%.