Petrobras (PBR)

Access to international capital markets for Brazilian companies is influenced by the perception of risk in Brazil and other emerging economies, which may hurt our ability to finance our operations and the trading values of our securities.

International investors generally consider Brazil to be an emerging market. As a result, economic and market conditions in other emerging market countries, especially those in Latin America, influence the market for securities issued by Brazilian companies. As a result of economic problems in various emerging market countries in recent years (such as the Asian financial crisis of 1997, the Russian financial crisis in 1998 and the Argentine financial crisis that began in 2001), investors have viewed investments in emerging markets with heightened caution. These crises produced a significant outflow of U.S. dollars from Brazil, causing Brazilian companies to face higher costs for raising funds, both domestically and abroad, and impeding access to international capital markets. Increased volatility in securities markets in Latin American and in other emerging market countries may have a negative impact on the trading value of our securities. We cannot assure you that international capital markets will remain open to Brazilian companies or that prevailing interest rates in these markets will be advantageous to us.