The default percentage in Belo Horizonte started the year with a decrease of 3.0 percentage points (pp), reaching 29.3% in January, against 32.3% registered in December. This was the lowest level reached by the indicator in the last 12 months.
The data is part of the Consumer Indebtedness and Default Survey (Peic), prepared by Fecomércio MG, based on data from the National Confederation of Trade in Goods, Services and Tourism (CNC).
The Federation's economist, Bárbara Guimarães, explains that the index refers to the number of families that have overdue bills or debts.
“The decrease in the indicator reveals that more people are managing to pay overdue bills, which were acquired mainly with post-dated checks, credit cards, store booklets, loans personal expenses, property acquisition and car and insurance payments.”
Continuing Debt
The Federation's survey also pointed out that, for the fourth consecutive month, the indebtedness index fell, reaching 72.8% of people from Belo Horizonte in January.
The main type of debt continues to be credit cards (86.2%) and the index is even higher among families with more than 10 minimum wages (93.5%). Then come the booklets (13.7%), car financing (12.3%), real estate financing (10.2%), overdraft (9.2%) and payroll loans (8.9%).
“It is noticeable that people from Belo Horizonte are buying less, avoiding acquiring financial commitments to try to obtain budget relief.
But we still observe the use of credit cards among the main payment options, which needs to be well planned by the consumer, so that he does not lose control of his family budget”, analyzes the economist.
The percentage of consumers who claimed not to be able to pay off the debt also showed a new drop. Therefore assuming the value of 10.5% in January, 3.4 pp below the one recorded in December (13.9%). This is the lowest value of the indicator in the last year.
In fact, the survey also showed that families in Belo Horizonte commit their income to debt for an average period of seven months.
indebtedness
In the capital of Minas Gerais, indebtedness represents 10% of family income for 68.7% of respondents, and for 19.7% this percentage reaches 50% of the monthly budget.
Peic portrays the commitment of family income to financing real estate, cars, loans, credit cards, stores and post-dated checks. As well as the payment capacity of consumers in the capital of Minas Gerais.
To prepare the January survey, one thousand families residing in Belo Horizonte were interviewed. The default margin of error of the survey, prepared in the last ten days of November, is 3.5% and the confidence level is 95%.
