Business News
Brazil posts highest inflation rate since 2004
Jan 6, 2012, 17:08 GMT
Sao Paulo - Prices in Brazil rose 6.5 per cent last year, according to the public Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE).
This is the country's highest inflation rate since 2004, when prices rose 7.6 per cent. In 2010, the price level in Brazil, the world's sixth-largest economy, increased 5.91 per cent.
Brazilian authorities had originally estimated for last year an inflation rate of 2.5 to 6.5 per cent, a broad window that allowed them to note that prices had risen largely as expected. The Brazilian Finance Ministry expects for 2012 an inflation rate of up to 5 per cent.
The Brazilian Central Bank has cut interest rates several times to boost economic activity. Authorities reduced taxes on consumption goods and also made consumer loans cheaper.
The Brazilian economy grew an estimated 3.0 to 3.5 per cent in 2011, compared with 7.5 per cent the year before. This year, the government again expects strong growth, of 4 to 5 per cent.
Brazil's neighbour Venezuela, Latin America's largest oil exporter, posted inflation of 27.6 per cent, 0.4 percentage points higher than last year's, according to the Venezuelan Central Bank. This is one of the world's biggest inflation levels.
The relatively good news for Venezuela, however, was that according to the Central Bank its GDP grew 4 per cent, compared to last year's 1.5-percentage-point contraction.
Read more about Venezuela
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