Annual consumer price inflation in Brazil rose to 4.9% in April, government statistics agency IBGE said on Friday, the highest in over two years and further above the central bank's end-year target of 4.25%.
Argentina's inflation rate accelerated for the third straight month in March, the government statistics agency said on Tuesday, prompting the central bank to unveil fresh measures to temper raging inflation and protect the embattled peso currency.
Brazil's inflation rate hit 0.75% in March, the fourth straight month of increases and the highest for the month since 2015 when it registered 1.32%, Brazil's National Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) said on Wednesday.
United States president Donald Trump said on Friday the US Federal Reserve should lower interest rates and take other unconventional measures to ease pressure on an economy that he said they slowed down. “I think they should drop rates,” Trump told reporters. “I think they really slowed us down. There's no inflation.”
Argentine unions, small business owners and activists took to the rain-drenched streets of Buenos Aires on Thursday to protest against austerity measures under President Mauricio Macri, which they blame for amplifying worker hardships and sapping growth.
A new massive blackout was recorded this weekend in Venezuela after a nationwide interruption of electricity service this Friday, which was slowly restored in main cities as Caracas. However, a new relapse of the supply occurred on Saturday night, affecting 16 states of the country - more than half.
Investors in Argentina are starting to get the jitters. The gap in yield between local and U.S.-issued bonds has roughly doubled in the last month in the face of stubborn inflation and mounting peso outflows, heaping pressure on President Mauricio Macri ahead of elections later in the year.
Argentina’s central bank wants to license market makers to help stabilize its embattled peso currency when the Treasury starts newly announced dollar sales in April. The bank hopes the market makers, dealers who agree to buy and sell at set prices, would bolster liquidity in the exchange market to help avoid the sharp gyrations the peso has suffered in recent weeks when it hit a record low of 42.5 pesos per dollar in thin trading.
Consumer prices in Brazil rose at a slightly faster pace than expected in February due to a rise in private education fees and food and beverage prices, statistics agency IBGE said on Tuesday. On a monthly basis, inflation rose by 0.43% in February, IBGE said, more than the expected 0.39% and up from 0.32% a month earlier.
British annual inflation hit a two-year low point in January, undershooting the Bank of England’s 2.0 per cent target on falling oil and other energy costs, official data showed on Wednesday.