Brasília – Brazilian foreign exchange reserves reached US$ 271.472 billion yesterday (22nd), according to information disclosed by the Central Bank today (22nd). It is the highest figure ever recorded in the country, as a result of the double auctions that the monetary authority has been promoting for two weeks now, on a daily basis, in order to purchase dollars in the spot market as a means of curbing the depreciation of the United States currency as against the Brazilian real.
Ever since Petrobras’ fundraising operation was announced, the dollar-to-real ratio has been dropping due to the expected inflow of the currency into Brazil, and also due to issuances scheduled by the Vale mining company, the Odebrecht building company, the Telemar telephone company and the Brazilian Development Bank (BNDES).
As a result of an expected flooding of the market with dollars, the dollar-to-real ratio started to decline, threatening to drop to the lowest figure this year, recorded in January 3rd, when it reached 1.72 real for one dollar. Thus, since the 8th this month, the Central Bank resumed making interventions twice a day to hold back the dollar value, and ever since, the country’s foreign reserves have increased by US$ 9.476 billion. In the meantime, the dollar-to-real ratio has varied from 1.727 real for one dollar, on the 6h this month, to 1.722 as of today’s closing time.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
