Brazil's Foreign Reserves Reach New Record At $209.6B

Fri, Jul 17 2009, 18:31 GMT
http://www.djnewswires.com/eu


Brazil's Foreign Reserves Reach New Record At $209.6B SAO PAULO (Dow Jones)--Brazil's foreign currency reserves reached a new record on July 16 of $209.6 billion on persistent government purchases of U.S. dollars in recent months, the Brazilian Central Bank said Friday. The previous record was set on Oct. 6, 2008, when the country's reserves totaled $209.4 billion. Reserves declined beginning in October of 2008 as the central bank loaned dollars to Brazilian businesses in the face of a global credit crunch. The central bank also sold dollars directly from reserves to the foreign exchange market via spot auctions.

Earlier this year, however, the government reversed course, buying dollars from the market at spot auctions. So far this year, reserves are up $2.8 billion. Reserves ended last year at $206.8 billion. Reserves grew sharply from 2005 through mid-2009 after the central bank started purchasing dollars from the spot market in October 2005. Reserves stood at only $53.779 billion at the end of 2005.

-By Rogerio Jelmayer, Dow Jones Newswires; 5511-2847-4521; rogerio.jelmayer@dowjones.com Click here to go to Dow Jones NewsPlus, a web front page of today's most important business and market news, analysis and commentary: http://www.djnewsplus.com/access/al?rnd=OgBNNDYHfkY7HuExqLXI%2FA%3D%3D. You can use this link on the day this article is published and the following day.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires
July 17, 2009 14:31 ET (18:31 GMT)
Copyright 2009 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.