Bloomberg reports that Brazil’s retail sales rose more than expected in May.  2008 was a record year in Brazil, yet retail sales rose 4% compared to May 2008 and it rose 0,8% compared to the previous month April 2009 (the expectation was a 0,4% increase).    The raising Brazilian middle class and Brazil’s huge internal market is fueling it’s resiliance in this crisis.

Economists are again revising Brazil’s GDP growth upwards.  This news will probably have the central bank incline to a further decrease of the SELIC intrest rate.  Estimates they will lower the rate from the current 9,25% to 8,75% on July 22.

Tags: middle class

For the first time in history, the Brazilian intrest rate is lower than 10%, the Banco Central lowered the rate to 9,25%.
Only since 2005 has the intrest rate slowly been decreasing towards 15% and below.

For the first time a whole generation of people will be able to finance the acquisition of a home.  Caixa Economica lowered this week the intrest rate to tariffs between 8,2 and 11,5% per year in the context of the Sistema Financiero de Habitacoa (SFH), which allows people to finance their proper home at a maximum sales price of 500.000 R$.  This is a decrease of 10,58% compared to the rates of April.

Also Banco do Brasil lowered it’s intrest rate for real estate financing last week from 8,0% to 8,4%.   They finance upto 80 to 90% of the sales value.  Banco do Brasil also lifted the finance period from 300 months (25 years) to 360 months (30 years).  The minimal financing amount has been highered to 150.000 R$ and the maximum amount is now 450.000 for loans in the SFH program (1,5 million R$ in case of a normal bond).

Also interesting is that Brasil is now financing 10 billion US$ to the IMF  (see article below).

Tags: brazil intrest rate, selic