Brazil's BNDES sees lending up 10 pct in 2009

Wed Dec 3, 2008 3:04pm EST
RIO DE JANEIRO, Dec 3 (Reuters) - Brazil's state development bank said on Wednesday it expects to boost lending by about 10 percent next year to 100 billion reais ($40.4 billion) as the global financial crisis increases demand for its resources.
"This year we should release 90 billion reais ($36 billion) or a little more. Next year we expect 100 billion reais as a preliminary forecast," Armando Mariante, the vice-president of the BNDES, told reporters.
The BNDES provides long-term financing to private companies and also uses its lending to support large-scale industrial and infrastructure projects.
Two government banks this week freed up 10 billion reais ($4 billion) for the BNDES to help the cashflow of small and medium-sized firms and support export financing among other areas of the economy suffering from the credit crunch. (Reporting by Rodrigo Viga Gaier; Writing by Stuart Grudgings, Editing by James Dalgleish)