Brazil’s Real Falls Most in Emerging Markets on Economic Concern

Paula Sambo – Bloomberg Businessweek, 11/04/2014

Brazil’s real led emerging-market declines as an unexpected drop in industrial production in September added to concern that President Dilma Rousseff will struggle to revive Latin America’s largest economy.

The currency weakened 0.9 percent to 2.5189 per dollar at 2:02 p.m. in Sao Paulo in the biggest drop among 24 developing nations. Swap rates, a gauge of expectations for changes in borrowing costs, increased 10 basis points, or 0.10 percentage point, to 12.49 percent on the contract due in January 2017.

The real also fell on wagers that Rousseff will appoint a finance minister who will maintain policies that helped lead to Brazil’s first recession since 2009. One-month implied volatility on options for the real, reflecting projected shifts in the exchange rate, was the highest among 16 major currencies.

Read more… 

Brazil industry logs first annual growth in a year

Asher Levine – Reuters, 12/04/2012

Brazilian industrial output posted its first annual increase in more than a year in October as a tax break on autos helped support a nascent recovery in the country’s beleaguered manufacturing sector.

Output from Brazilian factories and mines expanded 2.3 percent in October from a year earlier, government statistics agency IBGE said on Tuesday, though less than the 2.5 percent rise forecast in a Reuters poll of 33 analysts. Industrial production dropped 3.6 percent on a year-over-year basis in September, IBGE said, revised from a 3.8 percent drop.

“There is a gradual recovery happening,” said Jankiel Santos, chief economist with BES Investimento in Sao Paulo. “Bit by bit we are getting more signals of it and today’s numbers confirm it.”

Read more…

Brazil’s industrial output fell by most since 2008, surprising economists

Alexander Ragir – Bloomberg, 05/31/2011

Brazil’s industrial production fell in April by the most since 2008, surprising analysts who had expected output to expand in Latin America’s biggest economy.

Industrial production fell 2.1 percent from March, the national statistics agency said today, beating all 35 analysts in a Bloomberg survey whose median estimate for a 0.2 percent increase. Output fell 1.3 percent from a year ago.

Thirteen of 27 industries surveyed saw output shrink in April. Production of machinery fell 5.4 percent in April, reversing four consecutive months of growth, while assembly lines churned out 10.1 percent fewer white goods. Production of capital goods, a barometer of investment, fell 2.9 percent after expanding 7.7 percent in the first quarter.

Read more…