Rio de Janeiro – The official inflation measured by the Extended National Consumer Price Index (IPCA) ended 2019 at 4.31%. The rate is higher than the 3.75% posted a year earlier, the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) reported this Friday (10).
The 2019 rate stood above the Central Bank’s official year-end goal of 4.25%, which has a tolerance margin of 1.5 percentage points on either side. For 2020, the target is 4%.
Meats heavily influenced the result. The food and beverage index was up 6.37% in 2019 and contributed with 1.57 percentage point to the IPCA. Meats were up by 32.4% in 2019 and accounted for 0.86 percentage point of the general index. The Chinese demand for Brazilian meat drove the prices up. Beans, up 60%, were another villain.
Last December, IPCA stood at 1.15%, higher than the 0.51% posted in November and 0.15% posted a year earlier. This is the highest result for the month since 2002 (2.10%).
Up 1.54%, transports had a significant impact on IPCA last December, driven by the 3.36% gas price hike in gas price in the period.
*With information from ANBA newsroom
Translated by Guilherme Miranda
