The present research argues that the depreciation of the exchange rate has a negative effect on the balance sheet of Brazilian companies with debt in foreign currency. This effect is mainly on commodity exporters, since it is the class of companies with the highest indebtedness in the international market, as showed by the results. At the same time, companies with foreign currency debt showed a reduction in their investments in moments of depreciation of the exchange rate, which indicates the

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... edominance of the balance sheet effect. The conclusions of the study were obtained through descriptive statistics and econometric tests (panel data) to analyze the effect of foreign currency debt and the exchange rate on investment rate. It was verified that the balance sheet effect generated by the exchange rate depreciation is predominant when compared to the competitiveness effect from 2003 to 2015.