The average interest rate charged by the financial system in Brazil for loans rose again in November, following the monetary tightening promoted by the Central Bank this year to control the increase in inflation.
The rate rose 1.46 percentage points compared to October, reaching 34.14% per year, the highest level since November 2019, when it was at 35.55%. Only in 2021, the average rate of credit operations accumulates a high of 8.6 percentage points, informed the Central Bank this Tuesday (28).
The data refer to the free resources segment, in which the cost of financing is freely established by financial institutions, without government interference.
The Selic rate, which started the year at the lowest historical level of 2% per year, rose 7.25 percentage points throughout 2021, reaching 9.25% at the last meeting of the Monetary Policy Committee. The board has already indicated that it should promote a new increase of 1.5 points in the rate at the February meeting.
Despite the rise in rates, the default level remains practically stable, moving from 3.0% in October to 3.1% in November. In the first 11 months of the year, the total increase was 0.2 percentage point.
In November, there was also an increase in the banking spread, the difference between the cost of raising funds by financial institutions and what they charge customers for granting credit.
The level of spread in operations with nonearmarked resources was 23.4 percentage points in the month, against 22.9 points in October. In the year, the accumulated increase is 2.5 points.
Looking at individuals, BC stated that the highlight in the rise in average interest over the previous month was for financing for the purchase of vehicles (+2.7 points) and revolving credit card (+2.6 points).
Year-to-date, the biggest increases were in credit card installments (+18.6 points), card revolving (+18.3 points) and overdraft (+14.0 points).
The credit card revolving rate ended the month at 346.12% per year, the highest level since August 2017, when it stood at 392.29% per year.
Despite the rise in costs, the stock of credit in Brazil continued to rise. The total volume rose 1.8% in November over October, to 4.575 trillion reais, corresponding to 53.2% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
In the year, the credit stock in the country increased 13.8% and, in 12 months, 15.6%.
In the segment of free resources, the increase was 2.4% in November and 16.6% in the year, while in the segment of earmarked resources the increase was 0.8% and 9.9%, respectively.
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