Rogerio Jelmayer – Fox Business/Dow Jones Newswires, 06/02/2013
An increase in lending is seen as essential if Brazil is to jump-start economic growth. While lending has more than doubled over the past 10 years, the pace of growth fell in 2012 and has been blamed, in part, for disappointing growth in 2012.
In 2012, lending by all banks increased 16.2% to a record of nearly 2.4 trillion Brazilian reais ($1.2 trillion). But that was the lowest expansion in years. By comparison, lending rose 19% in 2011 and 21% in 2010.
Brazilian gross domestic product expanded by only 2.7% in 2011 and by an estimated 1.0% last year. The consensus forecast for 2013 is better at 3.1% but still lags behind developing-country rivals China and India.
