Brazil loan growth slows in line with central bank expectations

BRASILIA, Dec 26 (Reuters) - Outstanding loans in Brazil slowed over 12 months at a pace broadly in line with the central bank's annual expectations, official data showed on Friday, as a cooling economy and persistently high borrowing costs weigh on credit demand.

• Bank lending rose 0.9% in November from the previous month to 7 trillion reais ($1.27 trillion), slowing annual growth to 9.5% from 10.2% in October.

• Policymakers last week revised up their forecast for bank loan growth this year to 9.4%, from 8.8% previously.

• They cited stronger-than-expected performance of earmarked credit to companies and resilience in non-earmarked credit to households, but stressed that the expected slowdown was consistent with monetary policy.

• The central bank interrupted an aggressive tightening cycle in July and has since kept its benchmark interest rate at 15%, the highest in nearly two decades.

DETAILED FIGURES

• Credit to businesses slowed to 7.0% in the 12 months through November, from 8.4% in October.

• Household credit growth eased to 11.1% from 11.3%.

• A broad measure of consumer and corporate default rates, covering non-earmarked credit, edged down to 5.0% from 5.1% a month earlier.

• Lending spreads, meanwhile, rose 0.8 percentage point to 33.2 percentage points.

($1 = 5.5200 reais)