The US currency is trading lower this Thursday, hitting R$ 5.21 at its daily high. The previous day, the dollar reached R$ 5.25.
This Thursday, the 19th, the dollar is trading lower. At 4:30 p.m., the US currency was trading at R$ 5.1021, down 1.80%. The day's high so far was R$ 5.2100; the low was R$ 5.0890.
Yesterday (18) the dollar reached R$ 5.25 and closed the day at R$ 5.1955, up 3.79%. Thus setting a new nominal closing record (without considering inflation). At the day's high, the dollar reached R$ 5.2575. In the year, the currency has already accumulated a high of 29.57%.
BC Actions
The US central bank has allowed central banks in nine countries to access dollars in the hope of preventing the coronavirus epidemic from triggering a global economic crisis.
The U.S. Federal Reserve (Fed) said that swaps, in which the U.S. central bank accepts other currencies as collateral in exchange for dollars, will allow the central banks of Australia, Brazil, South Korea, Mexico, Norway, New Zealand, Singapore, Sweden, and Denmark to access a combined total of up to US$1,450 billion for at least the next six months. This money will ensure the dollar-dependent financial system continues to function.
BC intervening
Brazil's Central Bank has once again intervened in the exchange rate in an attempt to curb the US dollar's surge. This Thursday, the agency launched two auctions of lines with repurchase agreements worth up to US$1.5 billion each, in addition to the sale of up to US$1.5 billion in spot currency.
"The Central Bank, with its exchange rate policy, seeks much more to cushion (the dollar's rise) than to control the markets," Denilson Alencastro, chief economist at Geral Asset, told Reuters. "The Central Bank's current policy is to leave the exchange rate free. They act to prevent an exacerbation: to provide liquidity as much as possible," he stated.