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Exchange rate realignments and risks of deflation in North America

The US dollar has strengthened in recent months against most major currencies, with the exception of the yen. It has also gained strength against emerging market currencies, and the US effective exchange rate has appreciated by just over 7 per cent in the past three months. Emerging market declines have been exacerbated in recent weeks by the turbulence on financial markets that has forced stock markets to interrupt trading on several occasions. Figure 13 shows effective exchange rates for the US, Canada, Mexico and Brazil. Central banks in Mexico and Brazil have intervened in currency markets in recent weeks to stem the decline of their currencies, which have dropped against the dollar by nearly 20 per cent in the case of Mexico and 40 per cent in Brazil since the beginning of September. If stock market trading stabilises, much of these losses should prove temporary. Our forecast assumes that a depreciation of 10 per cent in effective terms in the Brazilian real and 5 per cent in the Mexican peso is sustained. While this raises the inflationary outlook for these economies, gains in competitiveness will help moderate the impact of the global recession on Latin American economies. However, a more sustained depreciation will put the banking systems in these countries at risk as it becomes increasingly difficult to service debt in foreign currency.