Rita Nazareth and Denyse Godoy – Bloomberg Business, 7/20/2015
The Ibovespa fell to an almost four-month low after Finance Minister Joaquim Levy said that a credit-rating downgrade by Moody’s Investors Service is more likely if Brazil doesn’t make economic adjustments.
Traders also pushed down the value of shares after newspaper Folha de S.Paulo reported Saturday that lower house President Eduardo Cunha would rebel against the administration by blocking a package of measures designed to shrink the budget deficit. His announcement heightened a political crisis that had already driven President Dilma Rousseff’s popularity to a record low and revived talks of impeachment.
“A credit downgrade is a big possibility as the government faces many hurdles in approving adjustment measures,” Hersz Ferman, an economist at brokerage Elite Corretora, said in a telephone interview from Rio de Janeiro. “Investors are already avoiding Brazilian assets because of that risk.”
Brazil Portal 