Brazil official inflation up to 1.62% in March

Brazil’s National Broad Consumer Price Index (IPCA), which gauges the country’s official inflation, stood at 1.62 percent in March this year. The indicator was above those observed in the previous month (1.01%) and in March last year (0.93%). The rate is the highest for March since 1994.

The IPCA is up 3.20 percent year-to-date. For the twelve-month period, the rate is up 11.30 percent, therefore above February’s 10.54 percent. The figures were released today (Apr. 8) by Brazil’s official statistics agency IBGE. 

The main impact on March comes from transport, up 3.02 percent this month, pulled up by fuel price hikes, up 6.70 percent in this time span. Gasoline had the greatest impact on the IPCA in March (6.95%).

Foods came next, up 2.42 percent, driven by items like tomatoes (27.22%) and carrots (31.47%). Meals eaten away from home rose 0.65 percent.

Eight of the nine groups saw price hikes: clothing (1.82%), housing (1.15%), health and personal care (0.88%), personal expenses (0.59%), household items (0.57%), and education (0.15%). The only to drop was communication, -0.05 percent.