BRASILIA: Brazil's central bank announced the end of a program to support the strength of the national currency, the real, despite its continued decline.
In a statement sent Tuesday night, the bank explained its intervention program that expires on March 31 had "provided a sufficient volume of foreign exchange protection" and would not be extended.
The central bank announced in August of 2013 it would spend over $50 billion in defense of the real through the auction of foreign-exchange swaps.
Auctions started with amounts of up to $2 billion per day and current auctions have a daily supply of about $100 million.
The real closed slightly higher at 3.127 to the dollar Tuesday following a session of trade marked by the confirmation of Brazil's BBB- investment rating by Standard & Poor's.
Brazil's currency lost 13 percent of its value in 2014 and has fallen 15 percent since the beginning of the year. Some analysts warn it will likely continue to show weakness over the long term.
The growth of the Latin American economy is now at a standstill, inflation is on the rise, and leftist President Dilma Rousseff has begun an austerity program to fix the public accounts.
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