Crisis slows lending at Brazil development bank

SAO PAULO, May 15 (Reuters) - Brazil's state development bank BNDES said on Friday it disbursed 2.0 percent more in loans in the first four months of this year than last, as companies hit by the global recession deferred investments or turned to commercial creditors.

Rio de Janeiro-based BNDES, Latin America's largest development bank, released 26.6 billion reais ($12.61 billion) in credit from January to April, according to a statement released by the lender.

Loan approvals tumbled 20 percent in the period, partly due to the passage of a 7 billion real credit line to Vale (VALE5.SA)(VALE.N) that wasn't included in the bank's lending records.

"Despite the crisis, requests for loans remained positive during the first four months and that trend reinforces our optimism for high disbursement levels in 2009 and 2010," said Gabriel Visconti, head of the BNDES's budget and planning division.

The data indicates that companies are reluctant to take on more credit as uncertainty over the extent and duration of the global recession causes them to delay investments and forces some to scale down operations and spend cash more carefully.

President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has made the BNDES his most powerful policy tool to revive activity in Brazil's export and industrial sectors as the country slides towards a recession after the boom years it saw for most of this decade.

The BNDES has deployed more than $30 billion in emergency credit lines for companies hammered by the global financial crisis since it intensified in September.

For the 12-month period up to the end of April, the bank approved 114.5 billion reais in new loans, down from 119 billion reais in the 12 months to March. Disbursements in the 12 months through to April fell to 92.8 billion reais from a record 94.4 billion reais in the 12 months to March.

(Reporting by Guillermo Parra-Bernal; editing by Peter Murphy)