Rousseff: Brazil well equipped to tackle rising dollar

President Dilma Rousseff said Wednesday that Brazil was well equipped to deal with the surging dollar, notably thanks to its sizable foreign reserves. "It does not affect the Brazilian economy as much as other economies," she said in a radio interview. "It is obvious than it does have some impact, but we have our dollar reserves." "We are certainly among the five or six countries in the world with the biggest foreign currency reserves. We have $372 billion in foreign reserves," she noted. The president said the strong appreciation of the greenback had nothing to do with domestic issues but was linked to possible changes in the US Federal Reserve's stimulus program. Markets have been speculating that the Federal Reserve may gradually end its $85-billion-a-month program of bond purchases. The value of the Brazilian real has fallen 15 percent against the dollar since the start of the year, reaching 2.45 last week, its lowest level since December 2008. The Central Bank last week pledged to inject up to $55 billion until year's end to defend the real. Rousseff explained that her government wanted to avoid overly abrupt currency variations. The real firmed in recent days, trading at 2.32 to the greenback Wednesday.