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By Natalia Siniawski and Natalia A. Ramos Miranda

SANTIAGO, May 8 (Reuters) - Consumer prices in Chile rose more than expected in April, data from statistics agency INE showed on Wednesday, with 12-month inflation trending back up to the 4% level driven by higher food, non-alcoholic beverages and transportation costs. Inflation in the Andean country hit 0.5% last month, INE said, above market forecasts of a 0.35% increase in a Reuters poll of economists.

The figure took 12-month inflation in the world's largest copper producer to 4.0%, up from the 3.7% reported in the previous month and above the central bank's target of 3%.

In the fourth month of the year, more than half of the 13 groups surveyed by Chile's statistics agency posted price increases.

The main contributions were food and non-alcoholic beverages with a 0.7% increase, and transportation with a 1.1% rise. Among the groups that recorded monthly price declines, clothing and footwear stood out, INE said in a statement.

Chile's central bank earlier this week said that the economy is broadly recovering, though some sectors have lagged and financial market depth has not yet returned to levels seen before the coronavirus pandemic.

The central bank has been cutting interest rates since last year after inflation receded, having reduced its benchmark rate by a total 475 basis points so far to 6.5%.

Still, policymakers slowed the pace of easing to 75 basis points at their last meeting in April and signaled that price changes must continue to be closely monitored.

The latest inflation data, Capital Economics said in a note to clients, "supports our view that the central bank will once again slow the pace of easing with a 50-basis-point cut at its meeting later this month." (Reporting by Natalia Ramos and Natalia Siniawski; Editing by Gabriel Araujo and Andrea Ricci)