Brazil has spent $23 billion to boost currency

The Associated Press
Published: October 22, 2008
SAO PAULO, Brazil: Brazil has spent US$22.9 billion since the worldwide financial crisis began in an attempt to stabilize its tanking currency against the U.S. dollar, the central bank president said Tuesday.
It's the first time the government has said how much it has used from the nation's more than US$200 billion in reserves.
Some of the dollars that Brazil has sold since the crisis began will not be returned to the reserves, while others will.
The reserves have fallen US$7.5 billion since Sept. 18, when they were at their highest, according to the Agencia Estado news service.
But despite the injection of money to dilute demand for the greenback, Brazil's real continued to slip, reaching 2.2 to the dollar on Tuesday.
The currency has declined more than 40 percent since Aug. 1 as wary investors pulled their money from emerging markets, including Brazil, amid the current global financial crisis.
Brazilian Central Bank President Henrique Meirelles told lawmakers that the dollars were injected into the economy in several ways — including loans, swaps, and direct auctions of dollars that won't return to the reserves.
Meirelles said that US$22.9 billion is a small amount compared to what other central banks across the world have been spending to address the crisis.