MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Producer inflation in Brazil rose 3,4% in October and 19,1% in twelve months

Twenty-three of the 24 mining-related and manufacturing activities surveyed showed rising prices, IBGE said, compared with 21 in September.

Producer price inflation in Brazil jumped to its highest on record in October, figures showed on Thursday, led by another month of rising food prices, which will likely stir the debate further on the wider outlook for inflation and interest rates.

Wholesale prices at the factory gate rose 3.40% in October from the previous month, statistics agency IBGE said, the highest since the series began in January, 2014.

It brought producer price inflation in Brazil in the first 10 months of this year up to 17.3%, and in the 12 months to October it was running at 19.1%, IBGE said.

Central bank president Roberto Campos Neto said he was “relatively calm” over inflation, but vigilant. “The central bank's horizon is always longer. This is the way to conduct monetary policy,” Campos Neto said.

Twenty-three of the 24 mining-related and manufacturing activities surveyed showed rising prices, government statistics agency IBGE said, compared with 21 in September.

Food prices, which have the biggest single weighting in the index, rose 4.6% in the month, and accounted for 1.2 percentage points, or around a third, of the monthly rise, IBGE said.

Food prices are up 28.4% so far this year, and compared with October last year they are 35.9% higher. Mining-related costs rose 9.7% on the month, accounting for 0.53 percentage points of the overall rise, IBGE said.