Brasília, 11/7/2003 (Agência Brasil - ABr) - At the end of this year one thing is for sure: Brazilians will have less money in savings accounts. According to the Central Bank, its data shows people migrating to other types of investments because they are considered more profitable. Last month there was a net drop of R$1.087 billion in passbook savings accounts (contas de poupança), with deposits totalling R$46.932 billion, and withdrawals at R$48.020 billion. For the sake of comparison, last year at this time there was a net increase of R$766 million.

Thus, in October passbook savings reached R$137.782 billion. In comparison, there was R$138.159 billion in passbook savings accounts in October 2002. (AB)