Latin America's credit growth deceleration likely continued in April

The moderate improvement in Latin America's credit growth in March will likely not be repeated in April, primarily due to continued deceleration in the consumer segment. Credit growth had declined to little less than 11.0% yoy in February from 14.7% yoy in January 2014 and nearly 21% yoy at end-2010. More recently, as the effect of the liquidity measures introduced by the BCB and finance ministry in H2 14 passed, credit growth has returned to its decelerating trend (except for the uptick in March) as growth remained weak, monetary tightening continued and interest rates rose further. 


"Credit growth is expected to have fallen to 11.0% yoy (BRL3,077bn) in April. While growth in the business segment is likely to have remained unchanged (10.0% yoy), growth in the consumer segment likely fell to 12.2% yoy, indicating downward pressure on consumption growth", according to Societe Generale.