(MENAFN- Brazil-Arab News Agency (ANBA)) Agência Brasil
Rio de Janeiro – The official Brazilian inflation rate, measured by the Extended National Consumer Price (IPCA), ended 2018 in 3.75%. In 2017, it stood at 2.95% . The information was released this Friday (11) by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics ( IBGE ). Inflation stood within the target established by the Central Bank for 2018, which ranged between 3% and 6%.
In December, IPCA registered a 0.15% inflation, a rate higher than in November, when there was a 0.21% deflation. In December 2017, the index had registered a 0.44% inflation.
The primary reason for the 3.75% inflation in 2018 was the increased cost of foods, whose prices raised 4.04%. In 2017, the food and beverage group registered a price drop of 1.87%. The result was influenced by the truckers strike in May, which provoked supply shortages in food items and an increase in these products prices.
'This [truckers] strike occurred in May, so it had a one-off impact in June on fuels and also on foods because of the shortages in supply. [If the strike had not happened], this would probably imply a lower inflation rate in the accumulated rate of the year,' said the IBGE researcher Fernando Gonçalvez.
Food consumed at home became 4.53% more expensive over the year, while the price of food consumed away from home (in bars and restaurants for example) rose 3.17%. Food products that had a bigger impact on the inflation in 2018 were tomato (71.76% more expensive), fruits (14.1%), meals away from home (2.38%), snacks away from home (4.35%), UHT milk (8.43%) and roll (6.46%).
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