Brazil Steps Up Intervention as the Real Crashes Toward Two-Year Low
- Central bank’s extra swaps sale wasn’t enough to support real
- Real briefly pared losses on Tuesday, closed at 2016 low
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The real’s depreciation has thrust Brazil’s central bank into one of its toughest tests in months after an attempt to placate the market failed to buoy the currency.
The real pared losses briefly Tuesday after policy makers offered to sell an additional $1.5 billion of swaps contracts, beyond the $750 million they had been auctioning daily. But the recovery faded by late afternoon, with the currency closing at 3.8094 per dollar, the weakest level in more than two years. It begins trading at 8 a.m. in New York.