In the first month of the year, loans in pesos to the private sector measured in real terms and without seasonality would have registered a monthly fall of 1.7%, accumulating seven consecutive months of decline. The decrease occurred in practically all lines of financing with the exception of documents. Thus, credit would have accumulated an annual fall of 13.9% in real terms. These data arise from the Monthly Monetary Report prepared by the Central Bank.
Among the loans associated with consumption, the financing instrumented with credit cards would have shown a monthly decrease of one percent at constant prices, and of 11.5% in interannual terms. Likewise, personal loans would have exhibited a fall of 0.8% in January (without seasonality) compared to December and would already be 18.4% below the level registered a year ago.
The Financing Line for Productive Investment (LFIP) continued to be the main tool used to channel productive credit to Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises. At the end of January, loans granted under the LFIP accumulated approximately $4.695 billion (4.7 trillion) since its launch, with an increase of 14.9% compared to the previous month. For its part, of the total financing granted through the LFIP, 13.4% corresponds to investment projects and the rest to working capital.
Fixed-term deposits in pesos from the private sector would have registered a contraction of 0.8% (without seasonality) at constant prices in the first month of the year with respect to December, reversing the rise of the previous month. However, these placements remained around the maximum levels of the last decades.
As a percentage of GDP, these deposits would have stood at 7.7% in January, a figure similar to the maximum reached during the pandemic. Analyzing the evolution of time deposits by amount stratum, a heterogeneous behavior is observed. Deposits from $1 to $20 million, whose main holders are individuals, registered an average increase in the month. This dynamic was offset by the drop experienced by retail (less than $1 million) and wholesale (over $20 million) deposits.
The decrease in placements in the wholesale segment was explained by the unwinding of positions in Mutual Investment Funds. They temporarily rebalanced their portfolio in favor of repos with the BCRA to the detriment of fixed-term placements and also remunerated sight deposits (see Chart 3.1). This occurred during a period in which the relative performance of the FCI repos practically matched that of other investment alternatives.
The CER-adjusted fixed-term deposits segment exhibited a new contraction in real terms, accumulating 6 consecutive months of falls. The decrease was verified both in traditional UVA placements and in precancellable ones, whose monthly variation rates were -14.8 and -14.5 percent, respectively. Distinguishing by type of holder, it can be seen that the fall was mainly explained by the holdings of human persons, which account for close to 85% of the total.
