Brazil's annualized inflation rate rose to 5.53pc in April, accelerating for a third month despite six central bank rate hikes since September aimed at cooling the economy.
The country's annualized inflation accelerated from 5.48pc in March and 5.06pc in February, according to government statistics agency IBGE.
Food and beverages rose by an annual 7.81pc, up from 7.68pc in March. Ground coffee increased at an annual 80.2pc, accelerating from 77.78pc in the month prior. Still, soybean oil prices decelerated to 22.83pc in April from 24.36pc in March.
Domestic power consumption costs rose to 0.71pc from 0.33pc a month earlier.
Transportation costs decelerated to 5.49pc from 6.05pc in March. Gasoline prices slowed to a 8.86pc gain from 10.89pc a month earlier. The increase in ethanol and diesel prices decelerated as well to 13.9pc and 6.42pc in April from 20.08pc and 8.13pc in March, respectively. The hike in compressed natural gas prices (CNG) fell to 3.5pc from 3.92pc a month prior.
Inflation posted the seventh consecutive monthly increase above the central bank's goal of 3pc, with tolerance of 1.5 percentage point above or below.
Brazil's central bank increased its target interest rate for the sixth time in a row to 14.75pc on 7 May. The bank has been trying to counter soaring inflation as it has recently changed the way it tracks its goal.
Monthly cooldown
But Brazil's monthly inflation decelerated to 0.43pc in April from a 0.56pc gain in March.
Food and beverages decelerated on a monthly basis to 0.82pc in April from a 1.17pc increase a month earlier, according to IBGE.
Housing costs also decelerated to 0.24pc from 0.14pc in March.
Transportation costs contracted by 0.38pc and posted the largest monthly contraction in April.
Diesel prices posted the largest contraction at 1.27pc in April. Petrobras made three diesel price readjustments in April-May.
