11/06/2008 15h34
BB helps car assemblers with US$ 1.82 billion
O Estado de S. Paulo - 11/06/2008
The banks of the car assemblers are going to receive R$ 4 billion (US$ 1.82 billion) from the Banco do Brasil bank to finance the purchase of cars by consumers. The measure will be confirmed today by the Ministry of Finance Guido Mantega. On Tuesday, Nossa Caixa bank should also announce participation in the program, informed São Paulo governor José Serra. With the extra allocation that will be available between this month and December, the institutions intend to start offering lower interests and longer terms of credit again in order to recover the sales of vehicle. Last month, business fell 11% in comparison to September. In view of the retraction, car assemblers anticipated the blanket vacations of the end of the year. General Motors announced a program of voluntary retirement in two of its plants. With the special line destined to the sale of new and used cars, car assemblers estimate that they will have power to irrigate credit for at least two to three months, when they hope the crisis will have given a truce. Each institution will deal the loan directly with the BB bank, in conditions similar to market's. Part of the allocation will come from the compulsory loan retained by the bank. The president of the National Association of Producers of Automotive Vehicles (Anfavea), Jackson Schneider, affirmed that some of the measures that have already been announced by the government, like the new system for payment of the compulsory retention over long-term deposit, starting showing effects. "The offer of credit started to return, but it is still insufficient to keep the rhythm of financings we had before", he said and only confirmed negotiations with Mantega. According to Anfavea, nearly 70% of the sales of vehicles in the Country are financed. Before the international crisis, banks offered plans of up to 72 months, without downpayments. Sales started breaking successive records month after month, a situation that was interrupted in October, when business showed a fall of 2.1% compared to the same month of 2007, to 239.2 thousand vehicles. In the last weeks, besides of the increase in interests between 20% and 30%, the financing terms fell to an average of 36 to 42 months and banks started demanding almost 50% of the value of the vehicle as downpayment.
