Brazil's central bank has announced a $60bn plan to prop1 up the value of the national currency.
巴西央行宣布投入600亿美元提升本国货币的价值。
It comes as the Brazilian real nears a five-year low against the US dollar.
The real and other emerging market currencies have fallen
steadily2 over the last three months on
speculation3 of higher US interest rates.
The central bank said it would spend $500m a day on Mondays to Thursdays and $1bn on Fridays buying reais in the currency markets.
The Monday-to-Thursday
interventions4 will target currency
swap5 markets - financial
derivatives6 used by companies and
investors7 to hedge their currency exposure - while on Fridays, the central bank will buy the national currency directly in return for US dollars.
The interventions will run up until December.
"This shows the firm determination of
monetary8 authorities to keep the exchange rate from slipping further," said Andre Perfeito, chief
economist9 at Gradual Investments in Sao Paulo.
It is the first time the central bank has pre-announced daily interventions in this way since 2002 - a time when markets were speculating over a possible Brazilian debt default, following the financial
collapse10 of neighbouring Argentina and with the
imminent11 election of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.