Business demand for credit grew 2.9% in June, survey shows

The demand of Brazilian companies for credit grew 2.9% in June, compared to the same month of 2021. This is what data from Serasa Experian, released this Tuesday (26), indicate.

Micro and small businesses were the main drivers of the data, with a 3.1% increase in the search for financial resources.

Medium and large companies, in turn, registered a decline of, respectively, 5.8% and 2.3%. It is the 6th consecutive month of declines for these companies.

The service sector leads the ranking of growth in demand for credit, with 7.3%, followed by Industry, with 6.1%. Of the segments analyzed, commerce was the only one with a drop of 3.2%.

Companies in the North region were the ones that most demanded credit, followed by the Southeast and South regions. Falls were recorded in the Northeast and Midwest.

reduced growth

Luiz Rabi, economist at Serasa Experian explains that, despite the positive performance of some sectors, June had a significant retraction when compared to other months of 2021.

According to the expert, this number was pulled down especially due to large and medium-sized companies. These are already preparing for a weaker second half, especially due to increases in the basic interest rate, which should remain high.

“This will have an impact and lead to a slowdown in economic activity. Therefore, those companies with greater management capacity and in prediction are already putting their foot on the brakes”, explains Rabi.

In the case of micro and small businesses, the data remains positive because they still urgently need credit. According to Rabi, emergency credits are the main need for companies.

“They are not able to prepare in advance and adequately for the scenario of economic slowdown. Especially companies in the service and retail sector, which suffer from rising inflation and interest rates”, he adds.

Rabi predicts that the numbers should slow down further in the second half. From January to June, compared to last year, the demand for credit grew 10.2%. The economist’s forecast is that this number will reach 1 digit in this period.