Savings has a net withdrawal of R$ 6.09 billion in March

The Central Bank (BC) reported this Thursday (6) that Brazilians withdrew R$ 6.09 billion more than they deposited in their savings account in March. The result comes after record withdrawals in January and February, with the flight of resources from the more traditional financial application of Brazilians slowed down.

The net withdrawal – withdrawals minus deposits – fell 60.36% compared to March last year, when account holders withdrew R$ 15.36 billion more than they deposited, reported Agência Brasil. With March’s performance, savings accumulated a net withdrawal of R$ 51.23 billion in the accumulated result for the year.

Despite the slowdown last month, the application recorded the highest accumulated withdrawal for the period since 1995, driven by the significant outflow of resources at the beginning of the year. In the first quarter of last year, withdrawals exceeded deposits by R$40.37 billion.

Until recently, savings yielded 70% of the Selic rate. Since December of last year, the application started to yield the equivalent of the reference rate (TR) plus 6.17% per annum, because the Selic was once again above 8.5% per annum. Currently, basic interest rates are at 13.75% per year, which made the financial investment stop losing to inflation for the first time since mid-2020.

In the 12 months ended in March, the application yielded 7.7%, according to the Central Bank. In the same period, the National Consumer Price Index-15 (IPCA-15), which works as a preview of official inflation, reached 5.36%. The full IPCA for March will be released next Tuesday (11) by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE).