Brazil’s IPCA consumer price inflation decelerated sharply in July under the influence of diminished transportation and personal spending costs, but remained near the ceiling of the twelve-month target range, the IBGE statistics institute reported. The institute said inflation rose just 0.01% during the month, tracking a 1.35 percentage-point decline in transportation costs and a 1.45 percentage point drop in personal spending. The IPCA index, however, remained at 6.50% over twelve months, down only slightly from 6.52% reported in June. According to recent central bank market surveys, the IPCA index is seen lingering near the 6.5% target ceiling for the remainder of this year and into 2015. Brazil’s central bank in the past year raised its base Selic interest rate more than 3 percentage points to 11% in an effort to curb accelerated inflation, but paused rate hikes, saying it planned to monitor the effects of its recent tightening cycle before before making further alterations in the Selic.