By Marcela Ayres
BRASILIA, Jan 29 (Reuters) - Brazil's bank lending increased 10.2% in 2025, official data showed on Tuesday, exceeding the central bank's forecast, driven mainly by stronger-than-expected
household borrowing amid government credit-stimulus measures.
President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's government announced in 2025 sweeping changes aimed at expanding payroll-deductible loans for private sector workers and extending subsidized home purchase programs to middle income families.
The measures came as the central bank kept monetary policy extremely tight to bring inflation to its 3% target, holding its benchmark interest rate at 15% - the highest in nearly two decades - since July last year.
Citing high borrowing costs, policymakers estimated in December that total outstanding loans in Latin America's largest economy would end last year with a more modest 9.4% expansion, down from 11.5% in 2024.
Household lending rose 11.6% in 2025, above the central bank's December forecast of 10.4%, while corporate credit grew 8.1%, broadly in line with the 8.0% estimate.
In December alone, total credit in Brazil rose 1.8% from the previous month to 7.1 trillion reais ($1.37 trillion).
A broad measure of default ratios for consumer and business loans excluding earmarked credit edged up to 5.4% from 5.3% the prior month, while lending spreads narrowed slightly to 33.6 percentage points from 33.8 points in November.
($1 = 5.1998 reais)
(Reporting by Marcela Ayres; Editing by Gabriel Araujo)
