Foreigners withdraw US$2 billion from financial investments in Brazil in March – Central Bank

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – For the first time in 9 months the outflow of funds invested in stocks and fixed income exceeds the inflow of investments.

Foreign investors withdrew a net US$2.084 billion from financial investments in the stock market and fixed income in Brazil in March this year, reported the Central Bank on Monday, April 26th. This is the first net withdrawal of resources from financial applications since May last year, i.e. after nine months. The amount includes stocks, investment funds and fixed-income securities.

Of the withdrawals of financial investments from Brazil in March, according to the Central Bank data, US$2.996 billion came out of the stock market and investment funds, while there was an inflow of US$ 912 million in fixed-income securities.

By April 20th, partial data from the Central Bank indicate a stability in the applications (balance close to zero), with US$1.2 billion of inflow in the country for applications in shares and US$1.3 billion outflow for fixed income securities.

According to the head of the Central Bank Statistics Department, Fernando Rocha, it is not possible to say that the outflow of funds in March will be a trend for the coming months.

“We shouldn’t say that this is a worsening of the pandemic,” said Rocha. “What went out in March came back at least partially in April. And what came in in March is going out in April. We have a volatile movement and we can’t identify a trend or whether it is related to the worsening of the pandemic,” he said.

According to Rocha, the amounts that had left the country between February and May last year, totaling US$35.3 billion, had virtually returned to Brazil from July 2020 to February 2021, with the inflow of US$35.2 billion.

“In February, investors returned to the same exposure they had before [the pandemic],” he said. With the March outflow, however, the position became negative again.

Source: G1