Brazil inflation 0.54% last month, highest for Jan since 2016

Inflation in Brazil dropped to 0.54 percent in January, compared to the previous month’s 0.73 percent. The result is the highest for January since 2016, when it reached 1.27 percent, as per data released by the government’s statistics agency IBGE on the Broad Consumer Price Index (IPCA), which gauges the country’s official inflation.

In 12 months, the indicator rose 10.38 percent, thus above the 10.06 percent reported in the previous 12-month span. In January 2012, the monthly change stood at 0.25 percent.

André Filipe Almeida, analyst on IBGE’s research team, stated the result was chiefly pulled by foods and drinks (1.11%), which had a stronger impact on the value for the month, 0.23 percentage points.

“Foods in the household (1.44%) had a major influence on this increase—more than foods out of the household, which slowed down from 0.98 to 0.25 percent. Among the top drivers were meats (1.32%) and fruits (3.40%). Despite having decelerated compared to the previous month, they faced the biggest impacts within this group, 0.04 and 0.03 percentage points respectively,” he said.