RIO DE JANEIRO, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- Brazil registered an inflation rate of 10.06 percent in 2021, the highest annual increase since 2015 and almost double the target set by the central bank, the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) reported Tuesday.
(Photo: VCG)
In December, prices in the South American country rose by 0.73 percent, lower than the increase of November (0.95 percent).
The major price increases last year were in transportation (21.03 percent), housing (13.05 percent), and food and beverages (7.94 percent), which together contributed about 79 percent of inflation in 2021.
The steady rise in prices in recent months prompted the central bank to raise the benchmark interest rate to 9.25 percent annually in December, the highest level in four years.
For the current year, the central bank has set an inflation target of 3.5 percent, with a 1.5 percentage points margin of tolerance, while the financial market projects that the indicator will be 5.03 percent at the end of 2022.
