Brazil’s bank lending expanded in March at the second-slowest pace in 13 months as the government stepped up efforts to contain demand and inflation by curbing credit to consumers.
Brazil’s central bank President Alexandre Tombini admitted that slowing inflation back to target next year will require a “prolonged” and incisive effort.
Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff said on Monday she is immensely worried about inflation near the top of the official target range and that the government will act to keep prices from rising further.
March inflation in Brazil accelerated to its fastest rate since November 2008, driven by food, beverages and fuel prices. Consumer prices as measured by the IPCA-15 index rose 6.44% in the year through mid-April, the national statistics agency announced Wednesday in Rio do Janeiro.
Uruguay’s concern with inflation risks and instruments to ‘mitigate’ its impact was underlined by the region’s representative at the IMF Monetary and Financial Committee meeting in Washington where the IMF and World Bank are holding their spring meetings.
China raised banks' required reserves for the fourth time this year, extending the fight against excessive liquidity and stubbornly high inflation in the world's second-largest economy.
Brazil is in the middle of a monetary tightening cycle, central bank President Alexandre Tombini said on Friday, days before the bank is expected to announce a hike in the benchmark lending rate.
Inflation in China accelerated in March to the fastest rate since 2008, despite government efforts to cool prices. Consumer prices rose by 5.4% in March compared with a year earlier, the National Bureau of Statistics said. In February, the annual figure was 4.9%.
President Jose Mujica promised there will be no ‘uncontrolled inflation in Uruguay’ and although admitting it’s not a simple problem, with no magic solution, there are “sufficient tools’ to address the issue including putting “government spending on a diet”.
Venezuela and Argentina recorded the highest rates of inflation in South America during the first quarter of 2011 according to the latest data available.