Brazil: Inflation rises back towards November’s peak in February
Consumer prices increased a seasonally-adjusted 1.01% in February over the previous month, accelerating from January’s 0.54% rise and marking the largest month-on-month increase since October. The acceleration was broad-based, with greater price pressures recorded for transportation, food and beverages, and housing.
Inflation ticked up to 10.5% in February from January’s 10.4%. February’s result was the highest inflation rate since November 2021. Annual average inflation rose to 9.2% in February (January: 8.8%).
Regarding the outlook for inflation, Ana Madeira, chief economist at HSBC, commented:
“We revise up our inflation forecast to 6.7% yoy for end-2022 (from 5.2%) and to 3.7% for end-2023 (from 3.4%). We now expect inflation to peak above 11.0% yoy in April. The geopolitical crisis in eastern Europe caused a shock to commodity prices leading to higher fuel and food price expectations for 2022. The upside revision for 2023 comes from inertia effects of a notably higher expected inflation for 2022.”