Brasília: Inflation in Brazil hit 6.41 percent in 2014, marginally below a government ceiling of 6.5 percent but still the highest annual figure since 2011, the National Statistical Institute (IBGE) said Friday.
Prices rose in December by 0.78 percent, above November`s 0.51 percent, but below the 0.92 percent rise of December 2013, IBGE revealed.
The official annual target is 4.5 percent, with a tolerance margin of two percent beyond that, but the central target has been missed several times in recent years. The 2013 annual figure was 5.91 percent.
The IBGE said food, beverages, transport and housing costs fueled last year`s rise -- with the cost of meat alone up 22.21 percent compared to a year earlier.
Price rises slowed marginally in August, which saw an increase of 0.25 percent. But September`s figure was 0.5 percent, for an annualized rate of 6.7 percent, sparking concern.
President Dilma Rousseff, who began a second term in office this month, has vowed to rein in spending, and Thursday unveiled budget cuts expected to total $8.4 billion a year, to dampen price pressures in the world`s seventh largest economy.
Analysts believe the central bank will also gradually hike interest rates, which are already high at 11.75 percent.
Brazil is facing a fifth straight year of low growth, and last month Brasilia cut its own 2015 forecast from 2.0 to 0.8 percent, in line with market forecasts.
Growth is expected to take off slowly by 2016, with predictions of 2.0 percent growth next year followed by 2.3 percent in 2017.
But Latin America`s biggest economy shows little sign of returning to the heady heights of the 7.5 percent growth rate seen in 2010, which dropped dramatically thereafter amid fading Chinese-led demand for commodities.
Newly-appointed Finance Minister Joaquim Levy, meanwhile, said tax rises were on the table as a means of increasing government revenue, but he said there would be nothing abrupt.
"We shall likely have to think of making readjustments to some taxes, particularly as some were reduced a while back-- and we are missing these receipts," Levy said in a question and answer session held over Facebook.
"Any changes will be effected carefully and after we have run out of other possibilities," Levy told visitors to the online session.
