Housing and Agribusiness Boost Bank Credit by 15% in 2009 in Brazil

In Brazil, the volume of bank credit operations totaled 1.389 trillion Brazilian reais (US$ 805 billion) in late November, expansion of 1.5% over October and 14.9% over the previous 12 months, according to the Financial System Monetary Policy and Credit Operations Report, disclosed by the Central Bank (BC).

The document shows that the expansion of credit reflects the return in the level of economic activity, so much so that the total number of loans is equivalent to 44.9% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP). The credit to GDP ratio was 38.9% in November last year, at the peak of the international financial crisis, when loans dropped.

Of the total loans, 945.9 billion reais (US$ 544 million – 68.1%) correspond to operations with free funds, being 464.8 billion reais (US$ 267 million) turned to families (growth of 1.3% in the month) and 423.8 billion reais (US$ 244 million – expansion of 1.5%) loans by companies.

Credit turned to housing and agribusiness totaled 442.7 billion (US$ 255 billion), expansion of 1.8% in the month and 28% over the last 12 months.

The credit borrowed by the public sector reached 57 billion reais (US$ 33 billion) in November, with growth of 2.7% over October. This expansion is due to the greater credit demand by states and cities, especially for investment in the areas of sanitation, housing and transport infrastructure.