According to the Fipe/Buscapé Price Index, prices of electronics and home appliances sold in Brazilian e-commerce recorded an annual drop of 2.3% in March 2025. The index is based on research that continuously monitors 47 categories and over 2 million offers using data from the country’s leading price comparison website, Buscapé.
After a stabilization in the annual declines in the previous 3 months, this drop continues the downward trend observed since April 2024. Given the importance of exchange rates for pricing in the sector, this movement reflects the appreciation of the US dollar, which was 15% for the annual period ending in March 2025 but had reached 23% in January.
Sérgio Crispim, a researcher at FIPE, comments that the impact of exchange rates on sector prices is significant. “Especially in segments with higher dependence on imported inputs, the dollar’s appreciation puts pressure on costs, which directly influences final consumer prices. Over the last three months, we’ve seen exchange rate fluctuations that, combined with the recent generalized price increases and instability in global tariff systems, make it difficult to predict the behavior of the index in the coming months,” he states.
In March, the Fipe/Buscapé Index recorded a monthly drop of -0.480%, nearly identical to the -0.478% drop seen in February 2025. In the 39-month history of the indicator, prices increased in only nine months, with four of those increases occurring in the last seven months, as shown in Chart 2, also reflecting exchange rate pressure on sector prices.
Computing remains impacted by exchange rates
Only four categories saw price increases in the annual period of March 2025 compared to March 2024: printers (3.8%), notebooks (2.4%), air conditioners (0.5%), and stoves (0.1%). Among those with decreases, the most notable were: electric fryers (-11.1%), TVs (-5.1%), headphones/headsets (-4.9%), and mobile phones (-4.4%).
The home appliances group was significantly influenced by the annual 0.52% increase in air conditioner prices, following three months of decline, as shown in Chart 4. Despite the positive annual variation, prices for these products fell by -0.23% monthly in March 2025.
The Computing group remains one of the most impacted by the dollar’s appreciation. After the peak annual drop of -13.1% in November 2023, it has shown a trend of increasingly smaller declines, reaching positive annual variations of 1.0% in January, 0.3% in February, and 1.4% in March 2025, as shown in Chart 5. This trend has occurred in most product categories in the group, particularly in notebooks and printers, which saw annual variations of 2.4% and 3.8% in the period, respectively.
Francisco Donato, Executive Superintendent of Mosaico at Banco PAN, emphasizes the need for consumers to assess the best purchasing opportunity. “Computer products are part of most people’s daily lives and serve a variety of functions. In this sense, it’s important to analyze the best time to buy, the cost-benefit, and price variations in this category, which is heavily influenced by exchange rate fluctuations,” he notes.
Chart 1 – Annual Variations of the Fipe/Buscapé Price Index for Electronics
 |
Chart 2 – Monthly Variations of the Fipe/Buscapé Price Index for Electronics
 |
Chart 3 – Annual Variations of Selected Product Categories in the Fipe/Buscapé Price Index for Electronics (March25 / March24)
 |
Chart 4 – Annual and Monthly Variations in Air Conditioner Prices
 |
Chart 5 – Annual and Monthly Variations in Computing Prices
 |
Source: Fipe/Buscapé Price Index
