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FM Guido Mantegna unveiled a tax on foreign exchange derivatives in the latest attempt to curb a currency rally.
The real is up more than 8% this year...after a 4.6% gain in 2010.
"We are in the middle of a currency war. Imagine if no measures had been taken...the dollar would be even lower," he said.
The measure imposes a 1% tax on trading in currency derivatives...with an up to 25% future tax possible.
One London economist feels it will only help at the margins.
"Over the medium to longer term, they need to get real interest rates down and that's going to take a lot longer to do and require structural reforms,"he said.
