The Brazilian central bank is seeking to sell foreign exchange (FX) swap contracts worth $4.5 billion, The Wall Street Journal reports. The bank has already raised $1.7 billion through the sale of swap contracts on Monday.

The central bank is selling contracts as dollars are relatively scarce, causing depreciation of the Brazilian real. The real fell sharply against the dollar in recent weeks. Through these auctions, investors are able to exchange contracts indexed to domestic interest rates for paper linked to the U.S. dollar.

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