Brazil's real ends weaker as outflows grow again
Reuters, Thursday, October 08, 1998 at 17:23
SAO PAULO, Oct 8 (Reuters) - Brazil's real weakened 0.17
percent to finish at 1.1845 per dollar in the commercial
foreign exchange market on Thursday as players speculated more
dollars had fled markets today.
By 1730 local/2030 GMT, an estimated net $342 million had
escaped the country's currency markets, or a net $222 million
from the commercial market and a net $120 million from the
floating market, dealers said.
The outflows put renewed pressure on the real as dollar
flight from Brazil's currency markets had been slowing in
recent days, dealers said.
A net $191 million had left markets on Wednesday, while a
net $101 million had entered on Tuesday as foreign buyers of
recently privatized Brazilian assets put down their payments.
Some $29 billion had exited Brazil since the beginning of
August as investors fled emerging markets, worried that Latin
America may repeat Russia's currency devaluation.
In a joint statement with the International Monetary Fund
from Washington, Brazil said on Thursday the government was
committed to the current forex regime and that it would not
impose controls on capital outflows.
But dealers said the comments did not impact the market as
they were widely expected.
In the floating currency market, the real closed down 0.07
percent at 1.1894 to the dollar on Thursday, while in the
parallel market the real closed up 0.77 percent at 1.30 per
U.S. currency.
Copyright 1998, Reuters News Service |
