SAO PAULO: Latin American currencies weakened on Tuesday as oil prices resumed their slide on doubts that a potential output freeze would relieve global oversupply.
Comments by the Saudi and Iranian oil ministers moderated expectations that major oil producers would agree to freeze production, driving down crude prices after a 5 percent jump on Monday.
The slide pressured currencies such as the Mexican and Colombian pesos , whose performance this year has closely tracked volatile oil prices.
Mexican growth slowed more than expected in the fourth quarter on a steep industrial contraction, weighed down by sinking production at state oil giant Pemex.
However, both currencies remained far from all-time lows reached earlier this year. Traders cited more interventionist central bank policies in Colombia and Mexico last week aimed at curbing foreign exchange weakness.
In Brazil, traders also debated the fallout from the arrest of Jo?o Santana, the architect of President Dilma Rousseff's 2010 and 2014 campaigns, as part of a sweeping corruption probe.
Eurasia Group analysts said in a report that the arrest increases the chances of an early presidential election, which would be the "clearest pathway to structural economic reforms".
They pointed out, however, that voters could also choose to elect an anti-establishment candidate who would have difficulty forging a coalition in Congress to pass fiscal reforms.
Shares of state-controlled oil company Petroleo Brasileiro SA fell as oil prices extended their losses, after earlier rising as much as 4.8 percent.
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