The Brazilian currency had the worst performance among the most traded currencies, as confused signals about the world economic situation increased risk aversion among traders, which are leaving high-yielding currencies to purchase safer assets.

Different factors pushed the Brazilian currency down this week as risk appetite declined, making stock markets around the world to fall, decreasing the attractiveness of emergent-markets currencies and their high-yielding profile. After a World Bank report indicating that the global recession may be deeper than expected, the already not solid confidence among traders to take significant risks was shaken, making currencies like the Brazilian real and the South African rand to lose against virtually all currencies. The price of oil fail to extend its gains, and being Brazil a main commodity exporter, a drop in commodity prices always weighs on its currency.

Currencies like the yen and the U.S. dollar suddenly became once again attractive due to its safer profile compared to higher-yielding options. The uncertainty about the global recession is once again moving markets sharply, after a significant rally in emergent markets currencies, risk aversion is once again heading investors towards safety, and it will be hard to determine Brazil’s real future, since confusion is big in markets, and overnight reports and decisions can influence traders majorly.

USD/BRL traded at 2.0305 as of 11:33 GMT from a previous rate of 2.0175. EUR/BRL rose from 2.7971 to 2.8348.

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