Rio de Janeiro: Brazil`s annual inflation rate climbed to 9.56 percent in July, the highest level since 2003, official data showed Friday.
Prices are being driven higher by the rising cost of electricity -- up 57.8 percent in the past 12 months -- as well as increasingly expensive housing, food and beverages, and health care.
Inflation remains well above the central bank`s target of 4.5 percent despite seven consecutive interest rate hikes -- most recently to 14.25 percent.
The latest figure adds to the bad news facing President Dilma Rousseff, who has struggled to kick-start the world`s seventh-largest economy, expected to contract by 1.49 percent this year.
A poll released Thursday put Rousseff`s approval rating at just eight percent, making her the most unpopular president since the end of Brazil`s military dictatorship in 1985.
