Economics
Latin American Currencies Lead Emerging-Market Selloff on China
- Worse-than-expected Chinese data heralded broad-based slump
- Inflation expectations climb to multi-year highs on weakness
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Latin American currencies led by the Brazilian real fell to their lowest on record, posting the steepest two-day decline in two years, after Chinese economic data showed the world’s second-biggest economy is slowing.
The Brazilian central bank’s offer of $4 billion in foreign-exchange credit lines wasn’t enough to keep the real from tumbling 2.9 percent to a fresh record low as of 4:40 p.m. in New York. The Chilean peso breached 700 per dollar for the second time in a decade, falling 0.9 percent to 703.88 per dollar. Mexico’s peso slide 1.4 percent to 17.1227 per dollar even after the central bank sold dollars for a third straight day. The Colombian peso has weakened 4.8 percent in the past week, its steepest decline since 2009.