Vitor Abdala         Reporter Agência Brasil

Rio de Janeiro – With fuel prices down 4.25% and food prices dropping 0.26%, official inflation as measured by the Broad Consumer Price Index (“IPCA”), halted a sharp upward tendency, rising only 0.15% in June, compared to 0.47% in May.

So far this year, cumulative inflation is 3.87%. For the last 12 months it is 6.71%, higher than the government’s inflation target of 4.5%, plus or minus two percentage points.

According to Eulina dos Santos, who heads the office of Price Indexes at the government statistical bureau (“IBGE”), fuel prices fell in June due to a lower price for ethanol, while food prices had their first decrease since September 2010.

“The price of ethanol dropped sharply due to a combination of lower demand in the past due to higher prices and a jump in supply as the new harvest went on market. Food prices, on the other hand, followed a slowdown in prices of commodities on international markets along with expectations of a bumper crop this year in Brazil that will be around 8% bigger than last year,” declared dos Santos.

Allen Bennett – translator/editor The News in English

Link - Quedas nos preços de combustíveis e alimentos freiam ritmo da inflação oficial em junho

Link - Inflação oficial diminui pelo quinto mês consecutivo e fica em 0,15% em junho