Economy registers official inflation of 1.06% in April

Brazil´s National Broad Consumer Price Index (IPCA), which gauges the country’s official inflation, stood at 1.06 percent in April this year. The indicator was below that observed in the previous month (1.62%). The rate was the highest for April since 1996 (1.26%).

According to data released today (Apr. 11) by the government’s statistics agency IBGE, the inflation in the last 12 months has reached 12.13 percent, which is above the immediately previous 12 months, and the highest since October 2003 (13.98%). The rate since January 2022 has reached 4.29 percent.

Eight of the nine groups of products and services surveyed have registered price increases in April. Food had the greatest impact on the IPCA for the month (2.06%).

“In the food and beverages sector, inflation was driven by the rise in food prices for home consumption (2.59%). Hikes have also been noted in the prices of UHT milk (10%), potato (18.28%), tomato (10.18%), soy oil (8.24%), French bread (4.52%), and meat (1.02%),” IBGE researcher André Almeida explained.

Transport prices have risen 1.91 percent and were the second main driver of the month's inflation. These two groups together were responsible for around 80 percent of the month's inflation.

In the transport sector, the main drivers were fuels (3.20%), especially gasoline (2.48%).