Brazil Set for Longest Bond Drought on Record

Brazil is close to hitting its longest stretch ever without selling new bonds abroad.

The Treasury hasn’t sold new notes in international markets since its $1 billion issue of 2025 bonds in September 2014 as a deepening recession and a widening political crisis drove Brazil’s credit rating to the cusp of junk.

If the government doesn’t tap international markets by Sept. 23, it will break its record bond drought of 384 days ended in April 2003, when concern over the election of then-President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva reduced foreigners’ appetite for new notes. Brazil bonds tumbled with the real this year as President Dilma Rousseff grapples with an anemic economy amid impeachment talks and a widening graft probe at the state-controlled oil producer.

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