Brazil, Colombia: Latin America Bond, Foreign Exchange Preview

By Jamie McGee

July 28 (Bloomberg) -- The following events and economic reports may influence trading in Latin American local bonds and currencies today. Bond yields and exchange rates are from a previous session.

Brazil: Inflation, as measured by the Foundation Economics Research Institute, slowed to 0.52 percent in the period ending July 23, from 0.59 percent increase in the previous 30 days, according to the median estimate of seven economists in a Bloomberg survey.

The real rose 0.3 percent to 1.5728 per dollar.

The yield on the country's zero-coupon bonds due January 2010 fell 9 basis points, or 0.09 percentage point, to 14.78 percent, according to Banco Votorantim.

Colombia: The central bank raised the benchmark lending rate for the second time this year in a bid to combat accelerating consumer prices.

Policy makers increased their overnight interbank rate by a quarter-percentage point to a near seven-year high of 10 percent, matching the forecast of 19 of 41 economists surveyed by Bloomberg. Twenty-two analysts expected no change.

The peso fell 0.3 percent to 1786.8 per U.S. dollar, according to the Colombian foreign-exchange electronic transactions system, known as SET-FX.

Yields on Colombia's 11 percent bonds due in July 2020 fell 2 basis points, or 0.02 percentage point, to 12.71 percent at 5:31 p.m. in New York, according to Colombia's stock exchange. The price rose 0.087 centavo to 89.745 centavos per peso.

To contact the reporter on this story: Jamie McGee in New York at jmcgee8@bloomberg.net