Nov. 13 (Bloomberg) -- Brazil’s real fell, heading for a weekly loss, as concern mounted the government may curb gains of the world’s best-performing major currency this year after the development bank reportedly called for measures to stop “speculation.”

The real lost 0.4 percent to 1.7427 per dollar as of 8:10 a.m. in New York, bringing its decline in last five days to 1.3 percent, the only one of 26 emerging-market currencies tracked by Bloomberg to weaken so far this week.

Brazil’s government on Oct. 19 announced a 2 percent tax on foreign purchases of stocks and fixed income securities. Since the so-called IOF tax was enacted, government officials including Finance Minister Guido Mantega have expressed concern about the effect of the real’s strength on exporters. Brazil’s development bank expects the country to suffer “astronomical foreign-exchange pressure” in the next two years, O Estado de S. Paulo reported today, citing an interview with Ernani Torres, a superintendent at the institution known as BNDES.

“There is a lot of conflicting information going around,” Clodoir Vieira, an economist at Souza Barros Corretora, a Sao Paulo-based brokerage, said in a phone interview. “That brings insecurity especially to foreign investors.”

Torres asked for new government measures to reduce financial speculation in Brazil, Estado reported.

Investors are afraid the government will enact “retrograde” measures in the way of controlling capital that flows in and out of the country, according to Reginaldo Galhardo, currency manager at Treviso Corretora de Cambio. “The government is using fear tactics against the market,” he said in a telephone interview from Sao Paulo.

Futures

“We want foreign capital for direct investment, for stocks and for financial investments but without exaggeration, to make sure there will not be a bubble in stock markets or excessive valuation of the Brazilian currency,” Mantega said at a conference in Sao Paulo, according to a Nov. 10 Agencia Leia report.

In the overnight interest-rates futures market, the yield on the contract due January 2011 rose two basis points, or 0.02 percentage point, to 10.26 percent, according to Bloomberg data.

To contact the reporter responsible for this story: Camila Fontana in Sao Paulo at cfontana@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: November 13, 2009 08:40 EST