Weekly Report - 23 July 2015 (WR-15-29)

BRAZIL | Inflation up, unemployment up, growth forecast down. Inflation for June was 0.79%, according to Brazil’s official statistics agency (Ibge). Accumulated inflation for the first half of 2015 stood at 6.17%, versus 3.75% in the same period of 2014. As of June 2015, the 12-month accumulated inflation stood at 8.89%. Unemployment is also up, reaching 8.1% in the quarter ending in May, a significant increase from the 7% reported in the same period in 2014. On 9 July, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) cut its forecast for Brazil’s GDP growth for 2015 from -1.0% to -1.5%.