Brazil, France and UK lead August inflation among world’s largest economies, OECD shows

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The United Kingdom, Brazil, and France had the most significant inflation surges in August among the world’s largest economies, according to a survey published on Tuesday (5) by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

The accumulated inflation rate over 12 months in Brazil and France rose 0.7 percentage points from July to August, second only to the United Kingdom, where the jump was 0.9 percentage points.

In Brazil, 12-month inflation rose from 9% in July to 9.7% in August, while it rose from 1.2% to 1.9% in France. In the UK, the rate advanced from 2.1% to 3%.

In the group of OECD countries, which includes all developed economies and some emerging ones, annual inflation reached 4.3% in August, against 4.2% in July. In the G20 countries, the rate was 4.5% in August, against 4.6% in the previous month.

Among the prices that have weighed most on inflation are energy prices, which had an annual rate of 18% in August in the OECD area, the highest increase since September 2008. Food price inflation also accelerated sharply to a rate of 3.6% from 3.1% in July.

Annual inflation was also higher in countries like South Africa (from 4.7% in July to 5.1% in August), Russia (from 6.5% to 6.7%), and Indonesia (from 1.5% to 1.6%). On the other hand, there was a decline in countries like the United States (from 5.4% to 5.3%), Japan (from -0.3% to -0.4%), India (5.3% to 4.8%), and China (1% to 0.8%).

Argentina continues to have the highest annual inflation among the G20 countries, with a rate of 51.4% in August, after nine consecutive months of highs. Next comes Turkey, with a rate of 19.3%. Brazil appears as the third-highest 12-month inflation among the countries listed in the OECD survey.

According to the IBGE, preliminary inflation accelerated 1.14% in September, the highest rate for the month since the beginning of the Real Plan, reaching 10.05% accumulated over 12 months.

The financial market’s current estimate for Brazil’s official inflation for the year is currently at 8.51%, according to the Central Bank’s latest Focus survey. For 2022, the projection is 4.14%. The president of the Central Bank, Roberto Campos Neto, evaluated on Monday that the inflation rate in the country should reach its peak in September and start to fall from this month.