Overdraft interest rate reaches 200.6% a year

The average interest rate for natural persons reached 43.4% a year in December 2014. The rate had been hitting record highs, but slipped 0.7 percentage points against November's 44.1%. Last year's total growth amounted to 5.4 percentage points. Data were released today (Jan 27) by the Central Bank.

Overall, as much as $608 billion was lent to natural persons—up 1.7% from November, and 4.7% in a 12-month analysis.

The highlight when it comes to loans to natural persons, however, is the overdraft interest rate, which totaled 200.6% a year in December, 2014—the highest figure since February, 1999 (204.3%). There was a raise of 9 percentage points compared to November, and 52.7 in a 12-month comparison.

Overdraft operations closed out 2014 at $8 billion, down 5.8% from November, and up 3.8% in the 12-month period. According to the Central Bank's head of the economic department Tulio Maciel, the reduction observed in December is a natural one. “People receive their 13th salary and use this benefit to clear their overdraft debt. This cuts down the balance at the end of the year,” he remarked.

Translated by Fabrício Ferreira