“As is repeated every year, the holiday period marks an increase in the use of this means of payment and credit, but on this occasion, the growth is minimal in real terms: consumers are undoubtedly making efforts to keep their budget balanced for on the one hand, and on the other, there is caution from financial institutions when expanding credit limits and offering a greater number of installments to pay off balances”.
“We find it interesting to highlight at this point that cards have become the financial instrument most used by people: historically, a relationship of $1 to $1 was maintained between balances of personal loans and credit cards, and both items alternated in the supremacy over the other, currently the relationship has been $2 in cards vs. $1 in personal loans for several months,” Barbero explained.
How was the behavior of other lines of credit in January
- Loans to the private sector
Total loans in pesos to the private sector in the first month of the year reached $7,270,024 million, representing a rise in the last 365 days of $3,007,807 million, equivalent to an annual increase of 70.6%, values which are below inflation for the period, if we compare values year by year and taking into account that we still do not have the indices corresponding to the month analyzed. During the last month, January 2023, growth has been $252,386 million, which represents an increase of 3.6%, a value that is thought to be clearly below the inflation expected for this month, according to estimates made by economic consultants. advance. In this way, the retraction of credit to the private sector is consolidated in real terms for the second consecutive month, confirming the trend of the last quarter, semester and year analyzed.
In January, the pledge credit line presented a portfolio balance at the end of January 2023 of $475,863 million, growing 89.7% versus the portfolio at the end of the same month of 2022 of $250,822 million, remaining for the first time in many months, below inflation. This is due to the high interest rate maintained by the Central Bank.
“It continues to hold first place in terms of growth among loan lines, but it can no longer show a positive change in real terms. The variation with respect to the balance of the previous month marked a rise of 2.2%, accumulating two years of consecutive monthly increases, but in recent months it lost momentum and no longer obtained growth in real terms. The increase in the interest rate in recent months has made it difficult to place these loans”, they expressed from First Capital Group.
Even those adjusted for inflation/UVA, during December they had a growth of 1.2% with respect to the stock of $376,657 million of the previous month, accumulating a total balance at closing of $381,235 million and an interannual increase of 30.4% in terms nominal. “A very limited evolution of this item is maintained. The macroeconomic situation of our financial market with high rates and short terms conspires against its growth”, he assured.
Compared to last month, the total amount has presented a positive variation of 3.7%, breaking a streak of 6 months of consecutive falls. Regarding the interannual variation, it presented a decrease of 5.9%. The stock of loans in dollars is US$ 3,637 million. 65.8% of the total debt in foreign currency continues to be the commercial line, which fell 7.0% in the year and increased 3.5% compared to the previous month.
Source: Ambito
I am a 24-year-old writer and journalist who has been working in the news industry for the past two years. I write primarily about market news, so if you’re looking for insights into what’s going on in the stock market or economic indicators, you’ve come to the right place. I also dabble in writing articles on lifestyle trends and pop culture news.
