Official figures indicate that consumer prices in Brazil were 0.09 percent higher last month than the month before, rising at the slowest rate for nine months, Reuters reports.

The news agency, citing data compiled by the Brazilian statistics agency, says the annual rate of consumer price inflation was 2.68 percent last month.

The official target rate for inflation this year is between 1.5 percent and 4.5 percent, Reuters says.

Separately, the Financial Times quotes an economist working for Capital Economics, Edward Glossop, as forecasting that, in view of the inflation figures, the Brazilian central bank will cut its main interest rate by 0.25 percentage point next month.

The central bank has cut the interest rate 12 times in less than 18 months, reducing it last month to its lowest ever – 6.5 percent, the British newspaper says.