Brazil records deflation in August

Brazil´s Broad Consumer Price Index (IPCA), which gauges the country's official inflation, registered a deflation of 0.02 percent in August this year. This marks the first time the indicator has shown deflation since June 2023 (-0.08%). The data were released on Tuesday (Sep. 10) by the government´s statistics agency IBGE.

The IPCA recorded inflation rates of 0.38 percent in July this year and 0.23 percent in August of the previous year. With this latest result, the IPCA has accumulated a rate of 2.85 percent for the year. Over the past 12 months, the accumulated rate stands at 4.24 percent, which is below the National Monetary Council's (CMN) target ceiling of 4.5 percent.

The decrease in prices in August was primarily driven by food items, which declined by 0.44 percent, and the housing expenditure group, which fell by 0.51 percent.