Economy

Official inflation in Brazil up to 0.23% in August

The main impact on the rate for the month stemmed from housing

Vitor Abdala

Published on 12/09/2023 - 12:05

Rio de Janeiro

Vista aerea da cidade de São Paulo, rio Tietê, predios, São Paulo, cidade — © Divulgação/Diogo Moreira/MáquinaCW/Governo do estado de São Paulo

Brazil’s official inflation, as gauged by price index IPCA, stood at 0.23 percent in August this year, up from 0.12 percent in the previous month. The index is also higher than that recorded in August last year, when 0.36 percent deflation was observed.

According to data released Tuesday (Sep. 12) by statistics bureau IBGE, the IPCA reached 3.23 percent in the year. In 12 months, the increase stood at 4.61 percent, thus still within the inflation target set by the National Monetary Council (CMN) for this year—1.75 to 4.75 percent.

The main impact on inflation in August came from housing, which rose 1.11 percent in the month, driven mainly by the 4.59 percent hike in electricity costs. Health and personal care (0.58%) and transportation (0.34%) also displayed significant impacts.

On the other hand, food continued to fall (-0.85%) due to the decline in products such as potatoes (-12.92%), pinto beans (-8.27%), and tomatoes (-7.91%).