Demand for credit exceeds prior-crisis level
Valor Econômico
The consumer demand for credit increased 4% in June compared to May and overcame the levels of the beginning of the economic crisis in Brazil, in October 2008, according to yesterday's data of the Serasa Indicator. June represented the fourth consecutive month of increase in the consumer demand for credit. The result shows, according to the entity, the level of confidence of the consumers on the path of the economy has been growing month after month.
According to Serasa, the credit conditions for individuals, mainly in relation to terms and costs, are already more favorable than they were at the beginning of the forth quarter of 2008. Regardless of this recovery of the last months, in the accumulated of the first half of 2009, the consumer demand for credit registered a 6.8% decrease compared to the same period of last year. In the annual variation, June registered the lowest fall of all first half (-1.2% compare with June/2008).
Compared to the levels in force prior to the worsening of the international financial crisis, only the class with personal monthly income up to R$ 500 (US$ 259.1) ended the first half at a level below that seen in October/2008. For all other social classes, the demand for credit is already at higher level than at that month. According to Serasa, in this movement of the recovery of the consumer demand for credit, characterized throughout the second quarter of 2009, the class of greater income was the one which registered the greater accumulated variation in the period from April to June (+20.1%).