THE General Price Index – Market (IGP-M), known as “rent inflation”, started 2026 with an increase of 0.41%. The result returns to the positive field after having shown a drop of 0.01% in December.
However, in the 12-month period, the indicator fell 0.91%, marking the third consecutive month of retraction in the one-year windows. In January 2025, when the IGP-M rose 0.27%, the accumulated amount reached 6.75%.
The data were released this Thursday (29) by the Brazilian Institute of Economics (Ibre) of the Getulio Vargas Foundation (FGV), in Rio de Janeiro.
The IGP-M is called rent inflation because the accumulated result is usually the basis for calculating the annual adjustment of real estate contracts. Furthermore, the indexer is used to adjust some public tariffs and essential services.
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Components
Researchers take into account three components to calculate the IGP-M. The one with the greatest weight is the Broad Producer Price Index (IPA), which measures the inflation felt by producers and accounts for 60% of the full IGP-M.
In January, the IPA rose 0.34%, driven mainly by increases in iron ore (4.47%), beef (1.37%) and tomatoes (29.5%).
Another component of the IGP-M is the Consumer Price Index (IPC), which accounts for 30% of the indicator. In January, the IPC rose 0.51%. The biggest upward pressures on families’ pockets came from primary education courses (3.83%), higher education courses (3.13%) and gasoline (1.02%).
The third component measured by FGV is the National Construction Cost Index (INCC), which was 0.63% in the month. Within the INCC, the item materials, equipment and services rose 0.34%; and labor, 1.03%.
Will rent go down?
Despite being known as rent inflation, the accumulated negative IGP-M is not a certainty that rents will be readjusted downwards. This happens because some contracts include the expression “adjustment according to positive variation in the IGP-M”, which means, in practice, that there is only an adjustment if the index is positive.
To arrive at the IGP-M for the month, FGV collects prices in Belo Horizonte, Brasília, Porto Alegre, Recife, Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo and Salvador. The survey period was from December 21, 2025 to January 20.
