Brazil’s real hit a nine-year low yesterday and stocks plunged as investors reacted with concern to the re-election of the country’s centre-left president Dilma Rousseff in a vote that split the country between rich and poor.
The real was trading at R$2.5330 against the dollar, a depreciation of 2.3 per cent, while the Ibovespa benchmark stock index was down 3.70 per cent by mid-afternoon, led by shares of state-oil company Petrobras, down 12.5 per cent.
“We have a serious shadow over Brazil, which is the possibility of a credit rating downgrade, so she [Ms Rousseff] needs to act very quickly,” said Andre Guilherme Pereira Perfeito at Gradual Investimentos brokerage in São Paulo.