Brazil’s real climbed to a one-month high and led gains among major currencies after the central bank said it will extend daily interventions for at least another six months as part of an effort to curb inflation.

The real rose 0.8 percent to 2.2078 per U.S. dollar at 11:47 a.m. in Sao Paulo, the strongest level on a closing basis since May 21. The rally was the biggest among the 31 most-traded currencies tracked by Bloomberg.

The central bank said in a statement yesterday after the close of markets that it will keep offering $200 million in currency swaps each business day through at least Dec. 31 and provide additional dollars as needed. The program supporting the real and limiting import price increases had been scheduled to expire at the end of this month.

“Extending the program until December shows the central bank is committed to giving support to the currency, and the real is reacting positively,” Silvio Campos Neto, an economist at Tendencias Consultoria Integrada in Sao Paulo, said in a telephone interview. “It is important for the market to consider that support.”

The currency swaps are designed to provide hedging and inject liquidity into the foreign-exchange market, the central bank said in the statement. Brazil sold $198.4 million of foreign-exchange swaps today.

Brazil provided details on its intervention program after inflation accelerated in the 12 months through mid-June to 6.41 percent, approaching the 6.5 percent upper limit of the official target range. Economists surveyed by the central bank forecast inflation will reach 6.46 percent by year-end.

Currency Range

Keeping the currency trading in a range of 2.20 to 2.25 per dollar is fundamental to Brazil’s attempt to control inflation, Campos Neto said.

Brazil intervened in the currency market last year after the U.S. Federal Reserve indicated it was preparing to taper monetary stimulus, prompting the real to fall in August to the lowest level since the 2008 global financial crisis.

Brazil’s higher interest rates compared with global peers will do more to boost the real than the central bank’s intervention, Andre Perfeito, the chief economist at Gradual Investimentos, said in a phone interview from Sao Paulo.

Policy makers increased the target lending rate nine consecutive times to curb inflation before holding it at 11 percent on May 28 as the economy slowed.

The benchmark Selic is more than twice as high as any other target lending rate among major rate-setting nations in Latin America, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The difference attracts so-called carry trade investors, who get funds where rates are low and buy assets in nations offering higher yields.

Swap rates on contracts maturing in January 2017 declined six basis points, or 0.06 percentage point, to 11.39 percent today, reflecting speculation that the central bank will limit further boosts in borrowing costs before the October presidential election.