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The Consumer price index Brazil’s IPCA-15 rose 0.78 percent in the month to mid-December, government statistics agency IBGE said on Thursday, losing steam from previous months but reaching its highest December reading in six years.
The index came close to expectations of a 0.8 percent rise, according to the median forecast in a Reuters poll. The annual inflation rate in mid-December stood at 10.42%, in line with the median forecast in a Reuters poll of economists, which was 10.45%, but well above the central bank’s target for inflation. of consumer prices at the end of the year, 3.75 percent.
The monthly rise also coincided with expectations of 0.8% in a survey of economists, slowing the 1.17% rise in November.
According to IBGE, prices rose in seven of the nine groups of goods and services covered. The biggest impact was transport, which ended the year with an increase of 21.35%, driven mainly by the rise in fuel prices.
The central bank acknowledged that inflation has been more persistent than expected, with price increases spread across various components. Against this background, its president, Roberto Campos Neto, affirmed that the country’s monetary tightening cycle, one of the most aggressive in the world, may have more room to travel.
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