Brazil's market for initial public offerings has slowed from its blistering pace last year with companies deciding that conditions are too rough to launch new issues, says a Citigroup report, according to Dow Jones.

Last year, buyers flocked to participate in the debut of two of Brazil's biggest-ever IPOs: the October listing of the Bovespa Holding SA, operator the Brazilian Stock Exchange, and the November listing of the Bolsa de Mercadorias & Futuros, a commodities and futures exchange.

The Bovespa IPO raised 6.6 billion reals, ($3.7 billion), and the BM&F deal raised 5.98 billion reals ($3.5 billion).

However, persistent worries about slowing growth worldwide, including recession in the U.S., and concerns that soaring commodity prices will push up inflation have dented Brazilian stock prices. Subsequently, that has dampened the efforts by many companies to go public.

Since mid-December, just one deal, which raised $14 million, has been completed according to Citigroup. Primary and secondary deals worth $30.8 billion hit a record number of 63 in 2007, well ahead of the 26 deals that were completed in 2006.

"The Brazilian IPO market has virtually ground to a halt," said Geoffrey Dennis, Latin American strategist at Citigroup in the report, according to a Dow Jones. "As market volatility has increased over the last three months, the pace of Brazil's IPO activity has slowed to a trickle."