Sales of government bonds to individuals over the internet totaled R$6.43 billion in July, the National Treasury announced on Monday (9). This is the second highest monthly value since the program was created in 2002, second only to March 2023, when sales totaled R$6.84 billion and broke record.
Compared to June, sales increased by 13.2%. Compared to July last year, the volume grew by 80.04%.
Two factors contributed to the high volume of sales in July. The first was the Treasury’s repurchase of bonds adjusted by the Selic rate (the economy’s basic interest rate), which were exchanged for new paper. The second was the strong issuance of bonds adjusted for inflation, whose monthly issuances broke a monthly record and reached R$2.32 billion.
The most sought-after securities by investors in July were those adjusted for inflation (Broad National Consumer Price Index – IPCA), whose share of sales reached 42.5%. Securities linked to the Selic (the economy’s basic interest rate) accounted for 38.9% of the total, while fixed-rate securities, with interest rates defined at the time of issuance, accounted for 14.1%.
Intended for financing retirements, the Tesouro Renda+, launched in early 2023, accounted for 3% of sales. Created in August last year, the new Tesouro Educa+ bond, which aims to finance savings for higher education, attracted only 1.5% of sales.
The interest in securities linked to basic interest rates is justified by the high level of the Selic rate. In July 2021, the Central Bank (BC) began to raise the Selic rate. The rate, which was at 2% per year, the lowest level in history, was 13.75% per year between January 2022 and August 2023. Even with the recent drops in basic interest rates, currently at 10.5% per year, the rates remain attractive and may rise again at the Monetary Policy Committee meeting in September.
The total Treasury Direct stock reached R$145.39 billion at the end of July, an increase of 1.53% compared to the previous month (R$143.19 billion) and 21.17% compared to July last year (R$119.98 billion). This increase occurred because sales exceeded redemptions by R$1 billion last month.
Investors
Regarding the number of investors, 335.6 thousand participants registered in the program last month. The total number of investors reached 29,298,508. In the last 12 months, the number of investors has increased by 17.16%. The total number of active investors (with open operations) reached 2,660,171, an increase of 16.02% in 12 months.
The use of Tesouro Direto by small investors can be seen in the considerable number of sales of up to R$5,000, which corresponded to 80.1% of the total of 869,618 sales transactions that occurred in July. Investments of up to R$1,000 alone represented 55.4%. The average value per transaction reached R$7,397.50.
Investors are preferring short-term securities. Sales of securities of up to five years represent 66.3% of the total. Transactions with terms between five and ten years correspond to 11.1% of the total. Securities with terms of more than ten years represented 22.5% of sales.
The complete Treasury Direct balance sheet is available at Transparent Treasury page.
Fundraising
Tesouro Direto was created in January 2002 to popularize this type of investment and allow individuals to acquire government bonds directly from the National Treasury, via the internet, without the intermediation of financial agents. The investor only needs to pay a semiannual fee to B3, the Brazilian stock exchange, which has custody of the bonds. More information can be obtained at website from the Treasury Direct.
The sale of bonds is one of the ways the government has of raising funds to pay debts and honor commitments. In exchange, the National Treasury undertakes to return the amount plus an additional amount that may vary according to the Selic rate, inflation rates, exchange rates or a rate defined in advance in the case of fixed-rate bonds.
