SAO PAULO: Disappointing economic data from China and concerns over health of Latin America’s largest economy pushed Brazilian real to its weakest level since late 2004.
Other currencies in the region also weakened, while the MSCI Latin American stock index erased the previous session’s gains.
The real was trading near the 2.82 per dollar level in the early afternoon after flirting with, but not surpassing, 2.80 in the previous session.
Data on Tuesday showed China’s annual consumer inflation hit a five-year low in January, adding to concerns the government will move to cool demand in the biggest market for Latin American raw-material exports.
The data added to an already somber mood in Brazil, with investors increasingly concerned about stagnant economic growth and skeptical of the government’s ability to control spending and reduce its budget deficit.
In addition, influential money manager Luis Stuhlberger wrote in a client letter on Tuesday that he sees a “perfect alignment of negative circumstances that could trigger a currency depreciation.”
Recent volatility in the real could also scare off foreign investors looking to profit from the Brazil carry trade, said Joao Paulo de Gracia Correa, a broker with Correparti Curitiba, Brazil.
Other Latin American currencies weakened more modestly, with Chile’s peso down 0.45 percent on lower prices for copper, the country’s main export.
Brazil’s Bovespa stock index fell for the third session in four, driven mostly by profit-taking in shares of mining firm Vale SA.
