Rio de Janeiro – The official Brazilian inflation rate in 2011, measured by the Extended Consumer Price Index (IPCA, in the Portuguese acronym), was 6.5%, the highest rate since 2004, when the index increased by 7.6%. The figures were issued this Friday (6th) by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE).
The indicator reached the upper limit of the target set by the Central Bank for 2011, which was 4.5%, with a range of 2 percentage points upward or downward.
The monthly IPCA increased by 0.5% in December 2011, after having risen by 0.52% in November. In December 2010, the rate was 0.63%. The IPCA is the index the government bases itself on to set its inflation target regime.
However, the president of the Central Bank, Alexandre Tombini, said consumer inflation is on a decline and will continue to drop in 2012.
In a press statement, Tombini said “consumer inflation as measured by the IPCA, in keeping with the scenario forecasted by the Central Bank, is going down and ended 2011 at 6.5%, after reaching 7.3% in the third quarter.”
To the Central Bank president, “other indicators corroborate the perception of a significant cooling down of inflationary pressure.” He cites the variation of wholesale prices measured by the General Market Price Index (IGP-M) which “has been showing a pronounced trend of decline, having dropped from 7.5% in the third quarter to 5.1% by the end of the year.”
“In 2012, consumer inflation will continue to drop towards the target range, in keeping with the monetary policy adopted by the Central Bank,” he said in the statement.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
