More than four in five Brazilian households now carry debt they cannot yet repay.
Em maio, mais de quatro em cada cinco famílias brasileiras carregavam dívidas ativas — o maior patamar registrado desde que o dado começou a ser monitorado, em 2015. O cartão de crédito, com juros rotativos de 428,3% ao ano, tornou-se o principal instrumento dessa acumulação silenciosa de obrigações, pesando de forma desproporcional sobre quem tem menos margem para errar. O governo respondeu com o Desenrola 2.0, um programa de renegociação com descontos expressivos e juros limitados, mas a pergunta que permanece é se uma válvula de escape é suficiente quando a pressão estrutural não foi removida.
- O endividamento das famílias brasileiras atingiu 81,6% em maio — o pior nível em mais de uma década —, sinalizando que a fragilidade financeira deixou de ser exceção para se tornar regra.
- O cartão de crédito, presente na vida de 84,6% dos endividados, cobra juros rotativos de 428,3% ao ano, transformando dívidas pequenas em espirais que famílias de baixa renda raramente conseguem interromper.
- O peso cai de forma assimétrica: são as famílias com menor poder aquisitivo as mais expostas às consequências do atraso — juros compostos, multas e o risco real de inadimplência irreversível.
- O governo lançou o Desenrola 2.0 em maio, oferecendo descontos de 30% a 90% e juros limitados a 1,99% ao mês para dívidas de cartão, cheque especial e crédito pessoal contraídas até janeiro de 2026.
- O programa abre uma janela de alívio, mas as forças que empurraram 81,6% das famílias ao endividamento — crédito caro, poupança escassa, salários vulneráveis — seguem intactas.
Em maio, o Brasil ultrapassou uma marca que não via desde o início do monitoramento, em 2015: 81,6% das famílias carregavam dívidas ativas. Os dados, divulgados pela Confederação Nacional do Comércio de Bens, Serviços e Turismo, revelaram não uma abstração estatística, mas obrigações concretas — faturas de cartão, parcelas de loja, empréstimos pessoais, financiamentos de veículos e imóveis.
O cartão de crédito dominava esse cenário. Presente na vida financeira de 84,6% dos endividados, ele também cobrava o preço mais alto do mercado: 428,3% ao ano no crédito rotativo — aquele que se renova mês a mês quando a fatura não é quitada integralmente. Planos de pagamento em lojas apareciam em segundo lugar, com 16,1%, seguidos por empréstimos pessoais, em 13,1%. A concentração importava porque significava que as famílias mais vulneráveis pagavam, proporcionalmente, muito mais.
O presidente da confederação, José Roberto Tadros, foi direto: o avanço do endividamento atingia sobretudo famílias de baixa e média renda, expostas ao efeito cascata dos juros compostos e das multas por atraso. Ele defendeu a abertura de caminhos para renegociação — uma forma de devolver fôlego a quem havia perdido a capacidade de se recuperar sozinho.
O governo federal antecipou parte dessa resposta com o lançamento do Desenrola 2.0, no início de maio. O programa mirava dívidas contraídas até janeiro de 2026 e inadimplentes entre três meses e dois anos, cobrindo cartões, cheque especial e crédito pessoal. Os descontos variavam de 30% a 90% sobre o valor original, com juros futuros limitados a 1,99% ao mês. Trabalhadores com renda de até cinco salários mínimos podiam usar até 20% do saldo do FGTS para quitar o que deviam.
A iniciativa oferecia uma chance de recomeço. Mas o endividamento havia crescido de forma constante, e as condições que o alimentavam — crédito estruturalmente caro, poupança insuficiente, famílias dependentes de salário sem reservas para absorver choques — não haviam mudado. O Desenrola 2.0 podia aliviar o sintoma. A causa seguia presente.
In May, more than four out of every five Brazilian households carried some form of outstanding debt—a threshold the country had not crossed in the eleven years since researchers began tracking the figure in 2015. The number landed at 81.6%, according to data released this week by the National Confederation of Commerce, Services and Tourism, a major business organization that surveys consumer finances regularly. The debts in question were not theoretical or distant: they were active obligations still owed—credit card balances, overdraft fees, store payment plans, payroll loans, personal borrowing, post-dated checks, and vehicle or home installments.
Credit cards bore the heaviest weight in this landscape of obligation. They appeared in the financial lives of 84.6% of indebted families, making them by far the dominant tool through which Brazilians borrowed. Store payment plans came second, present in 16.1% of households, followed by personal loans at 13.1%. The concentration mattered because credit cards carried the steepest price tag in the entire lending market: 428.3% annually for revolving credit, the kind that rolls over month to month. That rate—more than four times what most other forms of consumer lending cost—meant that families who could least afford to pay were often paying the most.
The burden fell hardest on those with the smallest incomes. Lower-income and middle-class households faced the sharpest consequences when payments slipped, because late fees and compounding interest could spiral quickly into amounts they could not recover from. José Roberto Tadros, who leads the confederation's broader system of business and worker organizations, described the pattern plainly: these rising debt levels struck primarily at families with limited purchasing power, exposed as they were to the cascading costs of missed payments. He called for a path forward—the ability to renegotiate what was owed, to find breathing room in the financial pressure that had accumulated.
The federal government had already moved to address the crisis. In early May, it launched Desenrola 2.0, a debt restructuring program targeting obligations incurred through January 2026 that had gone unpaid for between three months and two years. The program covered credit cards, overdrafts, and personal loans. It offered substantial relief: discounts ranging from 30% to 90% on the original debt amount, with interest capped at 1.99% per month going forward. For workers earning up to five minimum wages, the program allowed them to tap up to 20% of their job-security savings fund to settle what they owed.
The initiative sat within a larger government effort to reduce the cost of living for lower-income and middle-class Brazilians. Whether it would prove sufficient remained an open question. The debt level had climbed steadily, and the structural forces driving it—the high cost of credit, the thinness of household savings, the vulnerability of wage-dependent families to economic shocks—had not fundamentally shifted. The program offered a release valve, a chance for families to reset. But the underlying pressure that had pushed 81.6% of households into debt in the first place had not disappeared.
Citações Notáveis
This sequence of increases strikes primarily at families with limited purchasing power, exposed as they are to the costs that follow from payment delays. Families need the ability to renegotiate their debts and recover their financial footing.— José Roberto Tadros, president of the CNC-Sesc-Senac system
A Conversa do Hearth Outra perspectiva sobre a história
Why does the credit card rate matter so much more than the other numbers here?
Because it's the mechanism. When a family uses a credit card at 428% annually and then misses a payment, the debt doesn't just sit there—it compounds. For a family living paycheck to paycheck, that's the difference between a manageable problem and a spiral.
And these are families that already have limited income?
Exactly. The data shows it's hitting lower-income and middle-class households hardest. They're the ones most exposed to those penalty rates when something goes wrong—a job loss, an illness, an unexpected expense.
So Desenrola 2.0 is meant to break that spiral?
It's designed to. The 30-90% discount and the capped rate give families a chance to reset. But it's a one-time intervention. It doesn't change why they borrowed in the first place.
What does that tell us about the Brazilian economy right now?
That for most households, income isn't keeping pace with the cost of living. Debt isn't a choice—it's a necessity. And when necessity meets a 428% interest rate, you get 81.6% of families in trouble.
Is there a sense of how many people might actually use this program?
The source doesn't say. But the scale of the problem—more than four in five households—suggests the need is enormous. Whether the program reaches them is another question entirely.