Brazil workers demand lower lending rates

Union workers protested in the streets of Sao Paulo yesterday, but they weren’t complaining about politics or wages. Nope, Brazil’s main workers union CUT was miffed about interest rates, the Financial Times reported. The group claims that that Brazil’s stratospheric interest rates are making borrowing money too expensive, and that’s bad for poor people. The CUT is calling on Brazil’s central bank to lower its baseline SELIC rate, which currently stands at 11.75 percent—one of the highest in the world.

The high rates are also big deal because they attract boatloads of foreign investors all needing to convert their money into Brazilian reals, which has helped make this country’s currency one of the most over-valued on earth.