BRASILIA: Funds and speculators on US futures markets increased their bearish bets against the Brazilian real for a fifth week in a row, the longest streak in almost a year, data showed on Friday.

The latest Commodity Futures Trading Commission data on Friday showed that funds increased their net short position by 2,917 contracts to 17,366 contracts in the week to Feb. 9, the biggest net short in two months. To go short a financial asset is to effectively bet that it will decline in value.

After plunging 30% against the dollar last year, many analysts expected the real to rebound strongly at the start of this year, especially with punchy inflation pushing the central bank closer towards its first interest rate hike since 2015.