MEXICO CITY | Tue Oct 9, 2012 9:23am EDT

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexican inflation accelerated to a new 2-1/2-year high in September as prices of fresh food continued to rise although analysts expect no immediate reaction from the central bank.

Annual inflation rose to 4.77 percent last month, up from 4.57 percent in August but just below the 4.78 percent expected in a Reuters poll, the national statistics agency said on Tuesday.

It was the highest rate since March 2010 and puts inflation even further above the central bank's 4 percent tolerance limit, which it has now overshot for four months in a row.

Still, Banco de Mexico Governor Agustin Carstens has said it is important not to move interest rates from their current 4.5 percent level prematurely, as the central bank is watching for signs that price pressures are spreading through the economy.

The latest increase in consumer prices was driven by a 14 percent annual rise in egg prices, following an avian flu outbreak this year in western Mexico, with overall agricultural prices up 16 percent, the statistics agency said.

Consumer prices rose 0.44 percent in September from August compared to an expected 0.45 percent rate and a 0.30 percent rise in August.

But the rate of increase in core prices eased. The core price index, which strips out some volatile food and energy prices, rose 0.18 percent compared to an expected 0.20 percent increase and a 0.22 percent rise in August.

Policymakers have said they expect the jump in prices to be transitory and the market is betting on stable interest rates through next year.

Still, analysts recently raised their forecasts for inflation this year to 4.15 percent, increasing their estimates in a central bank poll issued last week for the fourth month in a row.

(Reporting by Krista Hughes; Editing by James Dalgleish)

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TOKYO | Thu Aug 2, 2012 2:09am EDT

TOKYO Aug 2 (Reuters) - Sharp Corp, which posted its worst net loss in a century in the last financial year, reported a first-quarter loss as waning TV demand and an overcapacity at its main liquid crystal display plant continued to weigh on earnings.

In the three months to June 30, Sharp swung to an operating loss of 94.1 billion yen ($1.20 billion) from a 3.5 billion-yen profit a year earlier. That was deeper than the average 44.4 billion-yen loss estimated by five analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

The manufacturer of Aquos TVs also slashed its forecast to a full-year operating loss of 100 billion yen, from its earlier estimate for an operating profit of 20 billion yen. That compares with the average estimate for an operating loss of 18.2 billion yen in a poll of 16 analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters since the company released its full year results in May.

Sharp is considering its first major layoffs that a source familiar with the matter told Reuters could be as many as 5,000 people.

The company in March also agreed to sell a 46.48 stake in its Sakai LCD plant to Taiwan's Hon Hai Precision Industries , part of the Foxconn Group, in a bid to isolate itself from the losses at the facility in western Japan.

Hon Hai, a major supplier to Apple Inc, is purchasing new shares in Sharp worth 66.9 billion yen, giving it an 11 percent stake in Japan's last major fabricator of LCD panels for TVs.

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