MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Brazil's Real rises to nine-year high; up 19% in 12 months

Brazil's Real rose to a nine-year high as the US dollar slumped and investor demand for commodities and higher-yielding assets increased. Last April 30 Standard & Poor's upgraded Brazilian debt sending the Real and the Sao Paulo Bovespa stock index to new records.

The Real rose 0.8% to 1.6410 per dollar from 1.6545 on Thursday. The currency touched 1.6402, the strongest since April 1999. The Real has gained 19% against the US dollar over the past 12 months, the second-best performance among the 16 most-traded currencies after the Norwegian krone. The Bovespa index finished the week at 72.766,93, up 1.78% from Thursday, which represents the eight's highest daily record so far this year. Since January the index has increased 13.9% Brazilian exports have tripled since President Lula da Silva took office in January 2003 on rising world demand for soybeans, iron-ore, beef and cars. The economy expanded 5.4% in 2007, the fastest in three years, helped by rising exports and falling interest rates. The Brazilian economy is forecasted to expand 4.5% this year. The central bank raised the rate a half-point from 11.25% last month, the first increase in three years, in a bid to stem inflation. Policy makers next meet on June 3-4.