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After exceeding R$2,50, the dollar closes with a 1,2% drop.

In a turbulent session, the commercial dollar closed the day at R$ 2,462, down 1,2%; on Thursday, the 2nd, the exchange rate reached R$ 2,492, the highest value since December 7, 2008.

CURITIBA, PR, 08/19/2013: DOLLAR/ECONOMY - Despite the Central Bank's intervention in the morning, the spot dollar, a reference for negotiations in the financial market, registered a strong increase this Monday (19) with the market cautious about the future of the states (Photo: Gisele Federicce)

Wellton Max - Reporter from Agência Brasil 

After a turbulent session in which it surpassed R$ 2,50, the dollar reversed the trend and closed lower. The commercial dollar ended the day sold at R$ 2,462, with a drop of 1,2%. Yesterday (2), the exchange rate was R$ 2,492, reaching the highest value since December 7, 2008, a few months after the start of the economic crisis in the United States. At the time, the exchange rate had closed at R$ 2,50.

At its peak during the day, around 11:30 am, the US dollar reached R$ 2,505. With today's drop (3), the exchange rate ended the week with a 1,88% increase compared to last Friday, when it closed at R$ 2,416.

The tensions of the election campaign and the recovery of the US economy, which is stimulating the flight of dollars from emerging countries like Brazil, are putting pressure on the exchange rate. The government, however, claims that external factors are influencing the exchange rate much more than the internal political and economic situation.

Earlier this week, Finance Minister Guido Mantega attributed the instability in the financial market to the international situation. According to him, in recent weeks there has been greater volatility due to the prospect of an interest rate hike starting in 2015 by the Federal Reserve, the US central bank, and internal turmoil in several countries.

Commenting on the Quarterly Inflation Report, released last Monday (29), the director of Economic Policy at the Central Bank, Carlos Hamilton Araújo, said that the intensity of the pass-through of the variation in the US currency to inflation is much lower than ten years ago. For him, the low growth of the economy may contain the effect of the exchange rate increase on domestic prices.