By Natália Peres – Special to Gazeta do Povo
Paraná is experiencing an economic paradox: even with low unemployment and stable activity, household debt is rising above the national average. From 2024 to 2025, the average value of individuals' debts grew by 19% in the state, compared to 16% in Brazil. Among companies, the jump was 17.5%, also above the national average of 13.4%.
In the state, 43.51% of the adult population is in default, lower than the total for Brazil (48.31%) but higher than the figures for Santa Catarina (38.11%) and Rio Grande do Sul (41.49%). According to the president of the National Association of Credit Bureaus (ANBC), Elias Sfeir, who took part in a business congress in the city of Foz do Iguaçu (PR), the problem has multiple causes, but one of them lies in the credit protection system itself.
“In Paraná, consumers are only denied credit after 30 days” delay. In the other southern states, the creditor can deny the credit in two days. This longer interval ends up acting as an incentive for the person to continue buying, believing that everything is still fine - when, in fact, they have already exceeded the limit," he compares.
Law 22.130/2024, which came into force in April of this year, requires a minimum period of 30 days for customers to be denied credit in the state. For Sfeir, the rise in indebtedness reflects the low level of financial education among Brazilians. “Lack of knowledge about how credit works is the biggest problem. People confuse credit with income. Credit is neither a right nor an income: it consumes income. The benefit is immediate, but the commitment is medium-term - and few can see that.”
According to ANBC data, 40% of all debts registered in 2025 will be of a financial nature. There are more than 70 million people in the country who are in debt. According to research cited by Sfeir, half of the population is in poor or very poor financial health.
“The sustainability of credit depends on three pillars: visibility, responsible credit and conscious consumption. But the third pillar, financial education, is still the weakest,” he says. He points out that financial education should begin in childhood, in schools, and needs to be reinforced at home.
“In the past, there was home economics. Today, we need to take that up again. It's like wearing seat belts: it started with children learning at school and teaching their parents. Behavior change can come in the same way.”
Online betting worries the credit sector
The impact of online betting on the population's financial health also worries the credit sector. “Betting has a devastating effect. A survey in Mexico showed that those who have three or more active registrations on betting sites are 80% more likely to default. It's a financial epidemic,” warns Sfeir.
According to him, digitalization has expanded the reach of an old addiction. “Gambling has always existed, but the internet has turned it into a mass problem. There are people who earn a minimum wage and lose part of it gambling, believing that it will solve their lives. It's an illusion. Nobody goes to a casino to save their assets. Bets sell quick hope and generate frustration and debt.”
Despite the bad press, Sfeir argues that denials play an educational and protective role. “When the person receives the denial notice, 35% of them go and pay because they had forgotten. Others negotiate. And in the case of compulsive consumers - around 10% of those denied credit - denying credit is the best thing you can do, because it prevents the debt from destroying the person and their family,” he says.
Sector works towards a more conscious relationship with debt
In recent years, the credit sector has been trying to encourage a more conscious relationship with debt. The “Cadastro Positivo”, created five years ago, is an example: 78% of individuals' credit scores have improved since its implementation.
“Any consumer can check their credit score for free and understand why it is low and what they can do to improve it. Of those who follow the recommendations, 82% manage to raise their score,” says the president of ANBC.
With the end-of-year festivities approaching, the tendency is for credit to expand again - and debt too. “Consumption is the engine of the economy, but it's also emotional. At Christmas, people go into debt to show affection, and forget that affection doesn't need credit. Sometimes the best gift is presence,” summarizes Elias Sfeir.
While Brazil tries to balance the economic recovery and the high cost of living, the case of Paraná serves as a warning: the 30-day period for denial, combined with low financial education and the expansion of digital gambling, forms fertile ground for over-indebtedness. And, as Sfeir reminds us, “credit, when misused, ceases to be a solution and becomes a trap”.
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