Brazilians give up their savings in search of a better income

It’s still not entirely clear where savers are taking the money they used to live in that popular savings account, but the fact is that more and more Brazilians are leaving behind what is surely one of the worst-performing investments in the country.

According to the Central Bank, a higher drawdown is a reflection of inflation and access to more profitable investments. In the cumulative result for the year, from January to May, there was a negative account balance of R$69.231 billion – another record for a historic series.

Since January 2021, the account has only had seven of the 29 months with a positive net funding, when more money is deposited than withdrawn. In this period, the savings were negative of more than R$200 billion, in financing terms.

One of the reasons may be the improvement in the level of knowledge of Brazilian investors about financial products. According to the Anbima survey, in Brazilian Investor X-Ray, lack of knowledge of any financial product decreased from 72% of respondents in 2021 to 60% last year.

With greater knowledge, the investor also seeks a better return. To give you an idea, the Passbook has paid 8.38% in the last 12 months. The Treasury, an investment guaranteed by the national treasury, gained 13.68% in the same period.

Unlike the savings book, general securities are subject to income tax (ranging from 22.75% to 15% depending on the invested period). If we consider the rate for one example year of investment, the rate would still be 10.94%. This means that for every R$1,000 invested a year ago, the investor would have received R$83.80 in savings, for R$109.40 in a public bond.

Who cares, he started to move.