Twenty-one years without monetary correction in Brazil: impacts on the comparability of the accounting information of siderurgical and metallurgical companies

Abstract The purpose of this study was to empirically verify the existence or not of a distortion in the comparability of information when inflationary effects are omitted from financial statements. Although inflation has been under control in Brazil since the Plano Real, with indices well below those recorded in the 1980s and 1990s, discussing the need for accounting recognition of the effects of inflation remains an extremely relevant and pertinent issue in light of the proposal of accounting to produce faithful information that closely reflects the economic reality in which organizations operate. The results of the research show that financial accounting has been directly affected by the omission of inflationary effects in financial statements, drawing attention to the negative effects this has caused on the quality of the information produced. In order to operationalize the research, the Balance Sheet Monetary Correction (BSMC) was applied to the balance sheets of Brazilian companies from the siderurgical and metallurgical sector listed on the BM&FBOVESPA in the period from 1996 to 2016. Based on the variables net income, return on equity (ROE), and return on assets (ROA), and two conceptual axes of comparability (between entities and between periods), the statistical parameters were developed and the hypotheses were defined, which were tested using the Student t parametric test. This article shows the damage caused to the decision-making process of the external users for whom financial statements are intended when these are prepared neglecting the effects of inflation. This is verifiable through the analyses of the results obtained, including the observation of significant distortions between the means of the corrected indicators and the means of the historical indicators, such as in the case of net income in 2001, 2002, 2012, 2013, 2014, and 2016 (33.98%, 91.92%, -65.54%, -30.01%, -53.59%, and 26.30% variation, respectively), of ROE (-67.16%, -61.43%, -53.06%, -63.46%, -133.81%, and 65.00% variations in 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2014, and 2015, respectively), and of ROA (-26,70%, -41.14%, -33,34%, -43,49%, 98,83%, and -413,68% in 2005, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, and 2014, respectively).摘要：本研究旨在通过实证检验，验证财务报表忽略通胀效应时，信息可比性是否存在偏差。尽管自雷亚尔计划（Plano Real）实施以来，巴西通胀已得到有效管控，通胀指数远低于20世纪80、90年代的水平，但鉴于会计的核心目标是生成如实反映企业经营所处经济现实的可靠信息，讨论通胀效应的会计确认必要性仍是极具现实意义的重要议题。研究结果显示，财务会计直接受到财务报表忽略通胀效应的影响，该行为对所生成信息的质量造成的负面影响值得高度关注。为开展本研究，研究人员对1996年至2016年期间在BM&FBOVESPA上市的巴西钢铁冶金行业企业的资产负债表，应用了资产负债表货币调整法（Balance Sheet Monetary Correction）。本研究基于净利润、净资产收益率（return on equity，ROE）与总资产收益率（return on assets，ROA）三类变量，以及可比性的两大维度——主体间可比性与期间间可比性，设定了统计参数与研究假设，并采用学生t参数检验对假设进行验证。本文揭示了，若财务报表编制时忽略通胀效应，将对其服务的外部信息使用者的决策过程造成损害。这一结论可通过对研究结果的分析得到验证：调整后指标均值与历史指标均值间存在显著偏差，具体包括2001、2002、2012、2013、2014及2016年的净利润（分别变动33.98%、91.92%、-65.54%、-30.01%、-53.59%及26.30%），2008、2009、2010、2011、2014及2015年的净资产收益率（分别变动-67.16%、-61.43%、-53.06%、-63.46%、-133.81%及65.00%），以及2005、2009、2010、2011、2012及2014年的总资产收益率（分别变动-26.70%、-41.14%、-33.34%、-43.49%、98.83%及-413.68%）。