São Paulo – The result of the first four months of the year, disclosed this Tuesday (21st) by the Brazilian Development Bank (BNDES, in the Portuguese acronym) shows that the institution disbursed less money than in the same period of last year. According to figures supplied by the BNDES, from January to April this year the bank loaned 33.9 billion reals (US$ 21.2 billion), 5% less than in the same period of last year.
According to the BNDES itself, the amount of funds was lower because the period marked the transition into the Sustained Investment Program (PSI), established by the bank to finance projects at lower interest rates. In April, however, the PSI interest rates went up. In that month, the BNDES disbursed 9 billion reals (US$ 5.6 billion), 14% less than in April 2010.
The BNDES claims, however, that in the last 12-month period ended April, it loaned 166.7 billion reals (US$ 104.2 billion), 14% more than in the same period of the previous year. The figure drops to 141.8 billion reals (US$ 88.6 billion) when the calculation does not include the funds that the BNDES allocated to Petrobras’ fundraising operation. Thus, the total disbursed is 3% lower than in the same period of 2010. Expectations for this year point to a performance similar to last year’s, because the sum of deposits should reach 145 billion reals (US$ 90.6 billion).
Out of the 33.9 billion reals (US$ ) disbursed by the bank from January to April, 40% were loaned to the infrastructure sector, 31% to the industry, 20% to the trade and services sector and 9% to agriculture. According to the bank, micro, small and medium businesses combined received 15.1 billion reals (US$ 9.4 billion) of the total loaned, or 45%. The good result is partly ascribed by the bank to the PSI, which has been extended until the end of the year. In the first four months this year, the development bank recorded a 6% increase in loan approvals (45.8 billion reals, or US$ 28.6 billion) and a 9% increase (50.5 billion reals, or US$ 31.5 billion) in the number of loan requests that met the bank’s requirements.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
