During the financial downturn, the waning of sources of funds such as the international market and equity issues increased the demand for bank loans and altered the profile of liabilities reported by Brazilian public companies. This information is revealed by an unprecedented map of the Brazilian economy's financing characteristics, produced by the Center for Capital Market Studies (Cemec).

In 2004, bank loans accounted for 78.3% of listed companies' liabilities, whereas 21.7% came from debt obligations (debentures, commercial papers and CCBs). In the following years, debt obligations took the lead, reaching 92.3% by 2008. That year, the effects of the crisis affected the numbers. Bank loans began to make headway again, assuming almost 35% of liabilities denominated in Brazilian currency.

State-controlled banks have had a relevant role in this by compensating for the reduction of resources offered by private institutions. Since 2000, the annual growth rate of state-controlled banks has jumped from 20% to 40%. Private banks took the opposite direction, dropping from 40% to less than 15% at the end of 1H09.

The study also showed that, in 2009, for the first time since 2006, the amount of financing contracted by companies in relation to the Brazilian Gross Domestic Product (GDP) interrupted a long cycle of expansion and dropped from 39.8% in December 2008 to 39% in June 2009. Until that point, that number had grown by more than five percentage points per year. "Starting in 2006, the pace picked up because we had more opportunities to raise funds, be it through a greater supply of bank credit, the resurgence of the capital market or the funds offered by the BNDES", says Carlos Rocca, the Cemec's technical coordinator.

The depreciation of equity assets caused by the economic downturn was no impediment to the growth of the instruments used in the capital market, which rose from 40.9% to 63.5% of GDP – more than half of that amount is accounted for by private debt obligations. The historical series of data collected by the Cemec is expected to become the basis for a complete flow-of-funds matrix, such as those existing in other countries. (Yuki Yokoi)