Higher food prices push inflation to 3.4%

Inflation rose to a five-month high of 3.4 percent in September, the government reported on Thursday, again raising expectations of monetary policy tightening before the end of the year.

The result, attributed to higher food prices, picked up from August’s 3.1 percent and the 2.3 percent recorded a year earlier. It brought year-to-date inflation to 3.1 percent, just above the midpoint of the government’s 2.0 percent to 4.0 percent target.