Brazil

Dollar, yen and Swiss franc broadly higher; sentiment deteriorates after Bernanke’s speech. Euro trips ahead of $1.47 amid concerns over Greece’s package and soft German IP. Brazil and Poland both expected to hike by 25bps; Brazil’s…

Brazil is reportedly imposing trade barriers on auto parts imports and a variety of other products. Imports of 27 products will reportedly have tighter licensing requirements that can take up to 60 days to approve. These are called…

Brazil current account deficit came in at a wider than expected -$5.7 bln in March, but was fully covered by FDI totaling $6.8 bln that month. On a 12-month rolling basis, FDI was $60.4 bln vs. a current account gap of -$49.8 bln, pushing…

This was the first 25 bp move in the current cycle and was less than expected, as market expectations had been for 50 bp earlier this month but swung more towards 25 bp this past week on more dovish signals from officials. Of 58 analysts…

We are seeing divergent inflation paths in Brazil and Mexico, and today’s mid-April data underscored this point.

The easy stance of developed economy central banks is driving money into emerging markets and fostering the accommodative stance of those central banks, fearful of more hot money flows or currency appreciation. Easy money in the face of…

In Peru, populist candidate Ollanta Humala won the most votes in the weekend presidential vote in Peru, winning 29.3% so far with 75% of the ballots counted. By falling far short of the 50% + 1 needed to win, a second round vote will be…

By Win Thin Brazil Finance Minister Mantega announced macroprudential measures today, raising the IOF tax on consumer credit by 150 bp from 1.5% to 3% in order to help limit credit growth. So far, measures already taken are not working…

By Win Thin Brazilian Finance Minister Guido Mantega announced new FX measures at his press conference, but at first blush are quite underwhelming. The 6% IOF tax on local entities was extended for overseas loans with maturities up to 2…

By Win Thin With BRL breaking below 1.65 and KRW below 1100, it is tempting to suggest that EM policy-makers are becoming more willing to accept currency strength to help limit inflation. We’ve heard this many times before, almost every…