Brazil loan growth slows in line with central bank expectations

BRASILIA, Dec 26 (Reuters) -

Outstanding loans in Brazil slowed over 12 months at a pace broadly in line with the central ?bank's annual expectations, official data showed on Friday, as ?a cooling economy and persistently high borrowing costs ?weigh on credit demand.

* Bank lending ?rose 0.9% ?in November from the previous month to 7 trillion reais ($1.27 ?trillion), slowing annual growth to ?9.5% from 10.2% in October.

* Policymakers last week

revised up

their forecast for bank ?loan growth this ?year ?to 9.4%, from 8.8% previously.

* They cited stronger-than-expected performance of earmarked credit to companies and resilience ?in non-earmarked credit to households, but stressed that the expected slowdown was consistent with monetary policy.

* The central bank interrupted an aggressive tightening cycle in July and has since

kept

its benchmark ?interest ?rate at 15%, the highest in nearly two decades.

DETAILED FIGURES

* Credit to businesses ?slowed to 7.0% in the 12 months through November, from 8.4% in October.

* Household credit growth eased to 11.1% from 11.3%.

* A broad measure of consumer and corporate default rates, covering non-earmarked credit, edged down ?to 5.0% from 5.1% a month earlier.

* Lending spreads, meanwhile, rose 0.8 percentage point to 33.2 percentage points.

($1 = 5.5200 reais) (Reporting ?by Marcela Ayres; Editing by Gabriel Araujo)