The annual inflation rate in Brazil increased to 2.95% in December, from 2.50% in November, rising above economists' projections of 2.80%, but ending the year below the bottom of the central bank's target for 2017, which ranged from 3% to 6%.
Argentina changed its inflation target for 2018 to 15%, up from the central bank’s previous goal of 8-12%, Treasury Minister Nicolas Dujovne said on Thursday, raising expectations for interest rate cuts. The government will postpone by one year its goal of lowering inflation to 5%, pushing it back to 2020, Dujovne said.
Argentina's inflation during February reached 4.3%, according to the so called Congressional index, which is an average of private consultants and is released monthly by the opposition members from Lower House Freedom of Speech committee. This means inflation in the last twelve months in Argentina reached 34.8%.
Consumer prices in the Argentine province of San Luis climbed 2.9% in November over October, 27.8% over December 2012 and 29.3% in the last twelve months, according to the provincial stats office. San Luis is ruled by dissidents from the ruling Peronist coalition headed by President Cristina Fernandez.
Expected inflation in Argentina for the next twelve months is on average 31.3% according to the monthly survey from the Torcuato Di Tella University, UTDT. However the monthly expectation dropped 1.6 percentage points compared to September in all regions of Argentina.
Argentina’s inflation according to the ‘congressional index’ reached 2.55% in July and 24.9% in the last twelve months was announced on Wednesday by members from the opposition in the Lower House.
A major labour dispute is turning into an ugly conflict with the main Argentine dissident labour union challenging the government of President Cristina Fernandez and her latest policy of freezing supermarket prices for two months in a bold attempt to contain inflation.
Bank of England has chosen not to inject any more money into the economy, leaving its quantitative easing (QE) programme at £375bn. The Bank also left interest rates unchanged at 0.5%.
Argentina is the country with the world’s fourth highest inflation, behind Sudan, South Sudan and Byelorussia, according to a report from a leading Argentine bank from the City of Buenos Aires.
Uruguay’s Economy minister Fernando Lorenzo expressed concern about the deteriorating indicators from the Argentine economy which could have a negative impact on the country’s activity.