Good morning! Today, Brazil’s inflationary spiral is unlikely to be over any time soon. Will the new Mines and Energy Minister intervene in Petrobras? Candidates get police protection ahead of elections. Farmers hit by more extreme weather.
Why inflation might not yet have peaked
Yesterday’s inflation report diminished hopes that Brazil’s rise in prices will fade in a sustained fashion. Benchmark consumer price index IPCA rose by 1.06 percent over the past month â the worst for April since 1996. The 12-month inflation rate is now at 12.13 percent, the highest since October 2003.
Driving the news. Food and beverage products were the main inflation drivers, followed by transportation. These are hard-to-cut expenses that disproportionately affect the poor.
Why it matters. Inflation was lower in April than in March, but that doesn’t mean the price rise is set to slow down any time soon. State-controlled oil company Petrobras hiked diesel prices this week, which will have ripple effects on bus fares and logistics â which will push prices on supermarket shelves further up.
- A survey by market intelligence firm Horus and think tank FGV-Ibre shows that 40 of 51 products in Brazil’s basic basket of goods became more expensive in all...