RIO AFP JANEIRO: Annual inflation in Brazil has hit a 12-year high at 10.48 per cent, the government said on Wednesday, in the latest signal of economic disarray in the world’s seventh biggest economy.

The state statistics organization said November inflation rose 1.01pc for a year-on-year increase of 10.48. The previous high was 11.02pc in November 2003.

For a second month running, increased fuel costs, up 5.14pc, drove the general rise of costs.

Consumer petrol prices were up 3.21pc, or 8.42pc including October. Ethanol, which is widely used in Brazil to fuel cars, rose 9.31pc, or 26pc so far this year.

Domestic food prices rose 2.46pc, although far more in some areas, including 4.37pc in the north-eastern city of Goiana.

Brazil is going through a turbulent economic period with deep recession, rising unemployment, and a dramatic drop in investor confidence fuelled by an impeachment drive against President Dilma Rousseff.

Published in Dawn, December 10th, 2015