The share of Brazilian Defaulters that added to the list due to the lack of payment of food expenses, between January and June, was the largest in five years.
The shot of inflation and the drop in income explain the entry of debtors to the list of Brazilian Defaulters due to non-payment of the invoice for a basic item.
In the first half of the year, 18% of defaulters failed to pay food expenses and, therefore, ended up in the list of restricted CPFs.
This is the highest mark since the first half of 2017, when Boa Vista, a financial intelligence and credit analysis company, started collecting this information.
During the first semester, 1,500 defaulters were consulted electronically, in order to outline the profile of these consumers.
Miscellaneous unpaid bills, which include education, health, taxes, fees and leisure, have still been identified as the expenses that have led most consumers around 23% to default.
However, since the second half of last year, the portion of those who were unable to honor the payment of food draws attention.
“Financial institutions tell us that people are taking money (credit) to pay market bills, day to day,” says Boa Vista economist, Flávio Calife.
In the last 12 months until July, the inflation of the food and beverage group accumulates 14.72%, according to the Broad Consumer Price Index, the official inflation calculated by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics.
This is a result that surpasses the variation of the indicator as a whole in the period, which was 10.07%.
After unemployment, historically the main reason for default, mentioned by 28% of respondents in the first semester, is the decrease in income, with 24%.
From the second half of last year to the first half of this year, the share that pointed to this reason for not paying bills rose by 3 percentage points.
“It is, without a doubt, a fact of one year now”, says the economist.
The perception of the interviewees is that the situation of personal indebtedness has worsened a lot. From the second half of last year to the first half of this year, the share of consumers who consider themselves highly indebted rose from 32% to 37%, the highest mark since 2019, when this result reached 39%.
Last week, the Central Bank's Monetary Policy Committee raised the economy's basic interest rate, the Selic, to 13.75%.
It was the 12th consecutive rise in an attempt to hold back inflation, and also signaled that it could raise the Selic rate again at the next meeting, scheduled for September.
With interest and inflation still high and activity weak, the perspective, according to the economist from Boa Vista, is that delinquency will continue to grow in the coming months until next year.
“High interest rates contribute to the worsening of defaults”, says Calife.
Data from Boa Vista, show that the default ended the first half of this year with a high of 12.3% and in 12 months through June the advance was 7.5%.
Sources: Jornal O Estado de São Paulo
