On International Women's Day, celebrated today (8), the Consumer Debt and Default Survey (Peic), carried out by the National Confederation of Commerce in Goods, Services and Tourism (CNC), shows that 30.3% of consumers with overdue debts were women, while 29.1% were men.
At the same time, they are the ones who seek to resolve the problem more quickly: while women spent an average of 62 days without paying debts, men spent 63.5 days with outstanding debts.
The study also shows that 79.5% of women were in debt in February, an increase of 1.1 percentage points compared to January. Among men, the percentage fell 0.1 point, representing 77.2% of consumers.
The CNC economist responsible for the research, Izis Ferreira, lists some peculiarities that make women's financial situation more difficult than men's. “We are proportionally more numerous in society, but less involved in formal employment, for example. There is a greater predominance of women in the informal sector, and this brings greater vulnerability to income”, explained the economist in a note.
credit card
Women have concentrated their debt in shorter-term debt, mainly credit cards. They are proportionally more indebted than men in three types of debt: credit card (86.5% of those in debt), store vouchers (19%) and payroll loans (5.9%).
In other types of debt (overdraft, personal credit, post-dated check, home financing, car financing and other debts), men surpass women as a proportion of total debt.
Izis Ferreira also highlighted that it is increasingly up to women to support their families. “Currently, we have a large number of Brazilian households headed by women, who have more commitments to pay. We have opted for the easiest options, such as credit cards, which are also the most expensive on the market, because they help to stretch the monthly budget”, he analyzed. “That’s why any initiative that gives women greater awareness and training to better manage household finances is so important,” said the economist.
Over-indebtedness
Furthermore, 18.8% of those in debt consider themselves “heavy in debt”, the same proportion observed in February last year. The percentage is lower among men – 15.5% of those in debt, a drop of 0.6 percentage points compared to the 16.1% of February 2022. According to the CNC, this indicates that budgetary conditions are tighter for the female public .
The 0.3 percentage point increase in families that reported having outstanding debts (post-dated checks, credit cards, special checks, store vouchers, payroll loans, personal loans, car and house payments) was driven by debt of women in February and reached 78.3% of families in the country. Of this total, 17.1% considered themselves to be very indebted, an indicator that also grew again after sequential falls since November 2022.
According to the survey, general debt had been showing a loss of momentum since the fourth quarter of last year, but increased in February, with typical first quarter expenses due (taxes, school expenses and contributions to professional bodies, among others).
“The consumer feels an improvement in disposable income, as a result of the positive evolution of the job market and lower inflation”, stated, in a note, the president of the CNC, José Roberto Tadros. As a result, the proportion of families with overdue debt, although remaining high, fell slightly in the month, 0.1 percentage point, representing 29.8% of the total number of families.
However, according to Tadros, those with older debts continue to face difficulty getting out of default due to high interest rates. The February survey also shows that the proportion of consumers unable to pay outstanding debts from previous months reached 11.6% of the total, a stable percentage in relation to January, but still the highest rate since October 2020.
Defaulters
Even with the renegotiations, for every 100 consumers in default, 44 reached February with debts overdue for more than 90 days. The average delay in payments was 62.7 days, the longest since January 2021. The largest debt contracting in February occurred among consumers with incomes of three to five minimum wages per month.
The overdue debt indicator also decreased in February for the poorest group, with a drop of 0.9 percentage points. “More robust income transfer programs have supported the budgets of these consumers with lower monthly incomes. In an annual comparison, however, the volume of families with overdue debts increased in all income ranges”, explained Izis.
The percentage of consumers with outstanding debts from previous months also fell among the poorest, between January and February, but increased by 2.1 percentage points in the year. The indicator grew, in the annual comparison, only in the first two income brackets, up to three and up to five minimum wages.