Brazil battles to halt currency's rally

Brazil took further action to end a rally in the real on Friday, a day after Finance Minister Guido Mantega said a global currency war is still on. Latin America's largest economy will require that banks make non-interest bearing deposits with the central bank equivalent to 60 per cent of short dollar positions that exceed $1 billion (Dh3.67 billion) or their capital base, whichever is smaller, the central bank said in a statement on Friday. 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. Article continues below Brazil is seeking to improve the working of the currency spot market and reduce bets that the real will strengthen which reached $14.7 billion in June, the central bank said. June's long real positions were up from $9.3 billion in May and the highest since December. Real rise The real rose to as high as 1.5524 per dollar last week, the strongest level since 1999, as investors increased demand for higher-yielding assets amid easing concern over Greece's debt crisis. Brazil's government has repeatedly complained that a stronger currency harms its exporters while rich nations boost their own exports by devaluing their currencies. The central bank seeks to limit the real's appreciation by making it more expensive to hold short positions on the dollar, Tony Volpon, a Latin America strategist at Nomura Holdings in New York, said. "It will create a lot of distortions," Volpon said. "Markets could be a little volatile for a few days." The measure is unlikely to be effective since Brazil's interest rates are so enticing that investors will find ways to bring money into the country, Volpon said. The real has gained 48 per cent against the dollar since the end of 2008, the most among 25 emerging market currencies tracked by Bloomberg. Interest rates Policymakers raised interest rates at their last four meetings, to 12.25 per cent, and traders are betting they will raise rates twice more this year, according to Bloomberg estimates based on interest rate futures. The real weakened 0.6 per cent to 1.5625 per US dollar on Friday. In October, Mantega tripled to 6 per cent a tax on foreign investors' fixed-income purchases. On March 29, President Dilma Rousseff's administration increased to 6 per cent a tax on new corporate loans and debt sales abroad by banks. A few days later, she applied the higher tax to renewed, renegotiated, or transferred loans of as long as two years in length. Companies previously paid a 5.38 per cent tax on loans of up to 90 days and zero tax when the operation exceeded three months. "The currency war continues because the recovery in advanced countries has led to expansionary monetary policies," Mantega told reporters in Paris on July 7.