BRASILIA, Oct 12 — Brazil’s inflation rate rose for the third straight month in September, the government said Wednesday, as the central bank weighs further interest rate cuts for Latin America’s biggest economy.

The year-over-year inflation rate came in at 5.19 per cent, said the national statistics institute, IBGE. That put inflation above the central bank’s target ceiling of 4.75 per cent.

However, analysts said the figure was unlikely to stop the central bank from continuing to lower interest rates when its next monetary policy meeting wraps up on November 1.

"The figure is very good, and reinforces a more benign monetary policy vision that is expected to continue,” economist Andre Perfeito said in a note.

Highly hawkish for most of the past three years, Brazil’s central bank has cut the benchmark Selic rate by half a percentage point at each of its past two meetings, an easing cycle that President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva hopes will kickstart economic growth.

But the bank’s monetary policy committee is keeping a wary eye on inflation.

Brazil’s annual inflation rate, up from 4.61 per cent in August, has now risen by 1.2 percentage points since July, when it registered its first increase in 12 months.

The monthly inflation rate came in at 0.26 per cent. — AFP