The central bank waded into the currency derivatives market selling $1 billion worth of FX swaps, as the real’s lurch to another record low against the dollar gathered pace and threatened to bring the currency’s year-to-date losses to a whopping 10%. The sale of contracts expiring in March, October and December triggered a sharp reversal in the dollar to as low as 4.31 reais from over 4.38 reais, although at the close of trading it had settled around 4.34 reais. It was the central bank’s first new intervention in the FX swaps market in a year and a half, and will be repeated on Friday. In November, policymakers sold ... (full story)