São Paulo – This Thursday (24th) National Development Bank (BNDES) announced that it granted 17.2 billion reals (US$ 10.3 billion) worth of loans in the first six months of 2011, a 7% increase over the same period of last year. Disbursements reached 8.3 billion reals (US$ 4.9 billion) in January and 8.9 billion reals (US$ 5.3 billion) in February.
The bank informed that the increase was due to financing to micro, small and medium businesses, which reached 7,.7 billion reals (US$ 4.6 billion) in the first two months of the year, a 18% increase. The amount is equivalent to 45% of the total disbursed by the institution during the period.
Credit to large businesses, on the other hand, remained stable at 9.5 billion reals (US$ 5.7 billion). According to the BNDES, the reason was that the bank ascribed priority to increasing its loans to smaller enterprises.
The infrastructure sector accounted for 41% of disbursements in the first two months, especially in the electric power sector. Industry accounted for 32%, trade and services for 18%, and agriculture for 9%.
With regard to industry, the highlights were transport material, chemicals and petrochemicals, and the extraction industry, according to the bank.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
