Savings income is the worst within fixed income in 2022, points out study

In a year that was marked by high returns and by the growing investor demand for fixed income, the profitability of savings was at the bottom among the main financial investments of the class, even though it is exempt from IR (Income Tax).

Survey carried out at the request of Sheet by Andrew Storfer, director of economics at Anefac (National Association of Finance Executives), indicates that, despite the rise in the Selic, which left the historic low of 2% per year in March 2021 to end December at 13.75% , savings delivered a return of 7.67% in the year.

The study points out that a person who invested an amount of R$ 1,000 in savings at the beginning of the year had an income of R$ 76.70 in the period.

The relatively low return on savings compared to other fixed income investment alternatives occurs because the investment remuneration is 0.5% per month whenever the Selic rate is above 8.5% per year. When the basic rate is up to 8.5%, the savings yield is equivalent to 70% of the Selic rate.

Experts claim that, in the current scenario of high interest rates, there are more attractive alternatives available to investors.

Also a low-risk, high-liquidity investment, the Treasury Selic bond, which accompanies the basic interest rate yield, had a yield in 2022 of 9.49%. Those who invested BRL 1,000 in the bond, available for trading on the Treasury Direct platform, would have obtained a yield of BRL 94.88 at the end of the year, BRL 18.18 more than in savings.

The investment in a CDB (Certificate of Bank Deposit) of a large bank showed a return of 9.44%, a return that rises to 11.16% in the case of medium-sized banks, which embody a higher level of risk.

Estimates prepared by Anefac also indicate that LCIs (Real Estate Letters of Credit) and LCAs (Agricultural Letters of Credit), which are tax-exempt for individuals, had an average return of 11.07% in 2022.

Both the CDBs and the letters of credit and savings are guaranteed by the FGC (Credit Guarantee Fund), an association that guarantees the amount contributed by the investor up to the limit of R$ 250,000 per CPF and financial conglomerate, in case of eventual problems that the issuing institution may suffer along the way.

“When we compare savings with other investments that are also safe and that have a remuneration closer to the Selic, such as CDBs and letters of credit, we see that the application is losing profitability”, says the director of Anefac.

“The longer the investor leaves the money in savings, and the longer the Selic is higher, the lower the investment’s profitability compared to other safe investments”, adds Storfer.

In a scenario of high interest rates and political and economic uncertainty that increased volatility on the Stock Exchange, data from Anbima (Brazilian Association of Financial and Capital Market Entities) show the predilection of investors for fixed income in 2022 —funds dedicated to class had positive funding of R$ 74.5 billion, up to November 30th. Equity funds, on the other hand, suffered redemptions of around BRL 66.1 billion in the same interval, while multimarket funds saw outflows surpass inflows by BRL 83.7 billion.

After 2 years, savings returned to a positive real return in September

Although it was in last place among the main types of investment, savings, after two years, returned to yield above inflation in September of this year.

At the time, benefited by the deflation recorded by the IPCA (Extended Consumer Price Index), the traditional application recorded a positive real return of 0.02% in the last 12 months ended in September, according to a survey prepared by TradeMap. Real profitability considers how much money yielded after discounting inflation.

The last time the return on savings had been positive was in August 2020, when it delivered a real yield of 0.45%.

Despite the low profitability, the most recent data from the BC (Central Bank) show that around 164 million people kept some amount deposited in savings at the end of 2019.

In addition, research by C6 Bank/Ipec shows that the predilection for savings also affects people with the highest income in the country.

The survey heard 1,000 Brazilians from classes A and B with internet access, and showed that savings is the most present option in wallets. Around 28% indicated keeping some value in the application.

Then come CDBs, with 22%, and investment funds, with 16%. Stocks (14%), Treasury Direct (13%), LCIs and LCAs (9%) follow.

In any case, BC data also indicate that savings accounted for a net withdrawal of R$7.419 billion in November, taking the volume of net withdrawals in the accumulated result for the year to R$109.496 billion, a record for the series that started in 1995. The November result represented the second largest withdrawal for the month of the series, second only to November 2021, when there was a withdrawal of R$ 12.377 billion.