Brazil March inflation 6.1%, highest in over four years and well above cenbank target
BRASILIA, April 9 (Reuters) - Annual inflation in Brazil rose above 6% in March for the first time in more than four years, official figures showed on Friday, as spiking fuel prices lifted overall inflation even further above the central bank's year-end target.
The annual rate of consumer inflation rose to 6.10% from 5.20% in February, statistics agency IBGE said, slightly below the 6.20% median forecast in a Reuters poll of economists but the highest since December 2016.
The central bank's year-end goal is 3.75%, with a 1.5 percentage point margin of error on either side. These figures show inflation is now well above even the 5.25% upper limit of that range.
Monthly inflation edged up to 0.93% in March from 0.86% in February, IBGE said, the highest for any March since 2015 and close to economists' forecast for a 1.0% rise.
Six of the nine categories surveyed by IBGE showed rising prices in March, with a 3.8% jump in transport costs accounting for 0.77 percentage points of the overall monthly rise.
Within the transport segment, fuel prices rose more than 11% on the month, IBGE said.
The central bank last month delivered its first increase in borrowing costs since 2015, raising the Selic rate by 75 basis points to 2.75% and pledging to do so again next month barring any significant change to the outlook.
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