Brazil’s central bank to sell dollars outright for first time since 2009

Brazil’s central bank said on Wednesday it would sell dollars outright in the spot currency market this month for the first time in over a decade, changing its regular market operations in response to rising demand for liquidity. Report informs citing the TASS that the operation would match the $3.84 billion in currency swaps contracts expiring in October but which have not yet been rolled over. In a statement on its website, the central bank said it would sell up to $550 million daily in the spot market along with reverse swaps of the same value from Aug. 21-29.

The announcement came on the day Brazil’s real fell 2% to below 4.05 per dollar for the first time since May and currency market volatility jumped as U.S. recession fears and market turmoil in Argentina took their toll on local assets.

A central bank spokesman said this would be the first outright sale of dollars since February 2009.