MNI BRIEF Brazil's Inflation Decelerates To 4.68% In October

Brazil’s IPCA inflation was 4.68% in October, down from 5.17% in September, the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) said Tuesday. Consensus was for 4.75%.

On a monthly basis, consumer prices rose 0.09%, compared with 0.48% in the previous month. “This is the lowest result for the month of October since 1998, when it stood at 0.02%,” IBGE stated.

Inflation has remained above the upper limit of the Central Bank of Brazil’s 3% target range, which allows for a deviation of 1.5 percentage points in either direction, but has improved recently, now standing below 5%, a level that had persisted since January.

The BCB kept its Selic rate on hold at 15.00% last week.

“Electricity was the main negative influence on the monthly index (-0.10 pp), driven by residential electricity prices, which fell 2.39%,” IBGE added. (See MNI BRIEF: BCB Confident Rates Stay At 15% For Long - Minutes)