Brasília, 11/4/2003 (Agência Brasil - ABr) - Here is a breakdown on the way Brazilians use credit, as reported in a survey by the Credicard group. Credit operations available to the consumer are credit cards, personal loans, special checking accounts and mortgages. All told, up to August of this year, credit operations totalled R$431.6 billion, compared to R$595.8 billion during the same period last year.

Almost half of all credit operations are personal loans (49.2%). Use of special checking accounts is in second place with 17.7% of credit operations. Credit cards are in third place with 11.4%. Mortgages are in fourth with 3.1%.

However, the fastest growing sector is the credit card which is estimated to have turned over more than R$7 billion so far this year. That is an increase of 16% over the same period last year. (AB)