Matthew Bristow – Bloomberg/San Francisco Chronicle, 07/11/2011
Brazil’s real fell after the central bank stepped up efforts to stem a rally that sent the currency to a 12-year high against the dollar.
The real weakened 1.3 percent to 1.5830 per dollar at 8:40 a.m. in New York after the central bank announced measures late on July 8 to discourage investors from making bets against the dollar in Brazil.
The world’s second-largest emerging market will require banks to make non-interest bearing deposits with the central bank equivalent to 60 percent of short dollar positions that exceed $1 billion dollars or their capital base, whichever is smaller, the bank said in an e-mailed statement. The rule, which banks will have five working days to implement, amends a regulation introduced in January that required banks to pay deposits on short positions above $3 billion. A short position is a bet that the price will fall.
Brazil Portal 