The Expanded National Consumer Price Index of Brazil registered in March a variation of 1.62% compared to the previous month, which is the highest figure for this month since 1994, according to data released by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics.
Year-on-year inflation in March stood at 11.3%, above the 10.54% observed in the previous 12 months, according to Europe Press.
The March data represents an advance of 0.61 points compared to the February recordand so far this year the indicator accumulates a variation of 3.2%.
Transportation with an increase in March of 3.02% and Food and Beverages with a monthly increase of 2.42%, are the sectors with the greatest impact on the global number of consumer prices.
Between the two groups they contributed around 72% of the variation of the index during the month.
In the case of transportation, the rise was driven mainly by the increase in the price of fuels (6.70%), especially gasoline (6.95%); sector that suffered the rise of 18.77% in the average price of fuel sold by the state oil company Petrobras to distributors in the country.
In the group of food and beverages, the increase of 2.42% is mainly due to higher prices of food for home consumption (3.09%).
The housing segment increased 1.15%impacted by the increase in bottled gas (6.57%), whose prices rose due to the 16.06% readjustment in the average sales price to distributors in March.
The 1.08% increase in electricity also had an impact, due to the readjustments of 15.58% and 17.30% in the rates of two energy concessionaires in Rio de Janeiro, and the only category that reduced its prices compared to the month The previous one was communication, with -0.05%.
