Brazil inflation hits 12-year high of 9.56%

Brazil's annual inflation rate climbed to 9.56 percent in July, the highest level since 2003, official data showed Friday.

Prices are being driven higher by the rising cost of electricity -- up 57.8 percent in the past 12 months -- as well as increasingly expensive housing, food and beverages, and health care.

Inflation remains well above the central bank's target of 4.5 percent despite seven consecutive interest rate hikes -- most recently to 14.25 percent.

The latest figure adds to the bad news facing President Dilma Rousseff, who has struggled to kick-start the world's seventh-largest economy, expected to contract by 1.49 percent this year.

A poll released Thursday put Rousseff's approval rating at just eight percent, making her the most unpopular president since the end of Brazil's military dictatorship in 1985.