Brazil’s price index IPCA—the country’s official gauge for inflation—rose 0.71 percent in March, compared to 0.84 percent in February.
With an 8.33 percent hike, gasoline represented the greatest single impact on the March index (0.39 percentage points) and weighed heavy in the transportation group. Ethanol surged 3.20 percent. The data were released Tuesday (Apr. 11) by statistics bureau IBGE.
In the view of research analyst André Almeida, the return of federal taxes at the beginning of the month drove up gasoline and ethanol prices.
Year to date, the indicator climbed 2.09 percent, against an expansion of 4.65 percent in the previous 12 months—thus lower than the 5.60 percent seen in the 12 months prior. In March 2022, the index had grown 1.62 percent.
Defined by the National Monetary Council, the inflation target for this year sits at 3.25 percent, with a tolerance interval of 1.5 percentage points up or down. In other words, the lower limit is 1.75 percent, and the upper limit is 4.75 percent.
