Higher electric energy costs boost Oct. inflation hike

Brazil's National Broad Consumer's Price Index (IPCA), the country's official inflation, closed out the first ten months of the year with an accumulated increase of 2.21%, the lowest accumulated rate in the month of October since 1988's 1.44%.

The figures were released today (Nov. 10) by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE), and indicate that the rate hiked 0.42% from September to October this year—0.26 percentage points above the 0.16% increase in September.

According to IBGE, the surge from September to October was driven chiefly by electric energy costs, which increased at an average of 3.28%.

The data also show that the accumulated inflation in the last 12 months stood at 2.7%, above the 2.54% observed in the 12 months prior.

The target set for the country's inflation in 2017 was set at 4.5%.

Translated by Fabrício Ferreira