Montevideo – This Tuesday (20th) at a press conference in Montevideo, the Brazilian minister of Finance, Guido Mantega, stated that the government will use the necessary mechanisms to prevent the country’s currency, the real, from appreciating against the dollar once again. He did not specify a figure for the US currency, however.
“We will not allow the real to appreciate at the rate in which it did in the past,” said Mantega, who is in the Uruguayan capital attending the meeting of presidents of Mercosur member countries and associated countries. He recalled that a few months ago, one dollar was equivalent to 1.5 real, and that the government took steps to reverse that scenario, because it was harmful to the Brazilian industry.
“Whenever the real appreciates, the prices of Brazilian products go up both in the domestic and foreign markets. Exporting becomes difficult, and in the domestic market Brazilian goods compete against foreign products, which arrive here at low, manipulated and meddled with exchange rates.”
Mantega believes the policy of preventing the appreciation of the real is being successful, but he refrained from mentioning figures. He simply said he will “put in an effort so the dollar will be more appreciated and the real, more depreciated.”
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
