Brazil’s Real Drops as Swap Sale Outweighs Impeachment Hoopla
- Central bank offers $1 billion in contracts to curb rally
- Real briefly trims loss as Meirelles named finance minister
Brazil Expecting Rate Cuts in Second Half: Santos
Brazil’s real led losses among its major global peers after the central bank’s efforts to weaken the currency overshadowed the Senate’s decision to suspend President Dilma Rousseff from office amid a widening corruption scandal.
The real halted a two-day rally as the monetary authority sold 20,000 in reverse swaps, a move equivalent to buying $1 billion in the futures market. The sale overshadowed the Senate vote to push forward with an impeachment trial on allegations Rousseff illegally doctored fiscal accounts to mask the size of the budget deficit. The currency briefly trimmed part of its slide as Brazil’s new acting President Michel Temer appointed Henrique Meirelles, a former Wall Street banker, to head his economic team.