Mexico

Mexico’s annual inflation rate rose to a seven-year high in October, led by the cost of electricity, gasoline and food, cementing expectations that the country’s central bank will refrain from cutting interest rates this year. Consumer prices rose 5.78 percent in October from a year earlier, and 5.47 percent in the 12 months through September, the central bank said on its Web site. The annual rate was the highest since the 5.89 percent posted in October 2001. The peso’s biggest monthly loss in 14 years pushed up costs of imported goods, materials and manufactured products across Latin America’s second-biggest economy. (Bloomberg)