Data this week showing that Brazil ran up a current account deficit of $4.23bn in January should, on current performance, be cause for alarm.

The figure was much worse than the $2.7bn (€1.8bn, £1.4bn) expected by many economists and gave Brazil its first accumulated 12-month deficit (of $1.17bn) in five years. Nor does this look like a hiccup. Most economists expect deficits to continue at least for the rest of the year.