Last week, the Central Bank announced that the accumulated inflation rate as of August measured by the variation of the Consumer Price Index (CPI) against the figure for December 1995 was 1.31%, being less than that registered for the same period in 1995, which was 5.58%. The annual inflation rate, measured by the variation of the CPI over the past 12 months went down from 12.29% in August last year to 5.81% in August of 1996. These figures show that there was a reduction in the rate of price increases, when compared to the same period in the previous year. The monthly variation of the CPI from July to August 1996 was 0.16%. The variation on the CPI in August 1996, by groups of goods and services, evidences that the foodstuffs, beverages and tobacco cost 0.06% more, housing was up by 0.24%, clothing by 0.07%, and other items by 0.41%.