Real Sinks to 16-Month Low, Extends Month’s Drop to 15 Percent

Sept. 21 (Bloomberg) -- Brazil’s real tumbled, bringing its decline this month to 15 percent as the worst performer in Latin America, on growing concern the central bank is mismanaging interest-rate policy at a time when global economic conditions are deteriorating.

The real extended losses after Federal Reserve policy makers said there are “significant downside risks to the economic outlook.” The currency slumped as much as 5.8 percent to a 16-month low of 1.8960 per dollar and ended trading down 4.8 percent at 1.8756 as of 5 p.m. in New York.

Brazil’s Tombini: Economic Framework Has Been ‘Well Tested’

Brazil’s economic policy framework has been “well tested” over the last 10 years, and helped the country cope with the global economic and financial crisis of 2008, central bank president Alexandre Tombini said Friday.

“We have now in Brazil and in many countries in c a very well tested policy framework,” Mr. Tombini told a conference at the Brookings Institution in Washington.