Brazil bank lending grows 0.9% in October

BRASILIA, Nov 26 (Reuters) - Outstanding loans in Brazil rose 0.9% in October from the previous month, while the 12-month pace held steady at 10.2%, central bank data showed on Wednesday.

• Bank credit in Latin America's largest economy reached 6.9 trillion reais ($1.28 trillion).

• Policymakers at the central bank noted that "credit growth continues to slow, but the pace remains historically high," a separate document showed earlier in the day.

• They stressed that credit growth remains elevated in higher-risk segments for households, as well as for small and medium-sized companies.

• A broad measure of consumer and business default rates in non-earmarked credit was unchanged at 5.3% in October.

• Lending spreads widened to 32.6 percentage points, up 0.7 percentage point from September.

• The central bank has kept interest rates unchanged since July at a nearly 20-year high of 15% as it aims to bring inflation down to its 3% target.

($1 = 5.3825 reais)