What is the currency of Brazil called?

The real (pl. reais) is the present-day currency of Brazil. Its sign is R$ and its ISO code is BRL. It is subdivided into 100 centavos ("Cents").

The modern real was introduced in 1994, when it replaced the old currency, the cruzeiro real, as part of the Plano Real, a substantial monetary reform package that aimed to put an end to three decades of rampant inflation. At the time it was meant to have approximately fixed 1:1 exchange rate with the United States dollar. It suffered a sudden devaluation to a rate of about 2:1 in 1999, reached almost 4:1 in 2002 and then partially recovered until the domestic economic crisis of 2015. The exchange rate as of September 2015 was BRL 4.05 to USD 1.00. The currency has since been in a gradual recovery period, reaching 3.2 BRL per USD by June 2016.

The dollar-like sign (cifrão) is the currency's symbol and is officially written two vertical strokes.