Trade
Retail sales gather pace and increase by 0.4% in January
March 14, 2019 09h00 AM | Last Updated: March 14, 2019 11h43 AM
After a decrease of 2.1% in December, the volume of retail trade sales increased by 0.4% in January from the previous month. That is shown by the Monthly Survey of Trade (PMC), released today by the IBGE. Against January 2018, the sector recorded an increase of 1.9%, mainly due to the group hypermarkets, supermarkets, food products, beverages and tobacco, which account for 1.1 percentage points in the indicator.
The quarterly moving average index for retail trade ended January with a hike of 0.5%, above the stability of the period ended December. The cumulative index in the last 12 months also recorded positive results, with an increase of 2.2% against the previous year.
“Retail trade recorded again with a positive result in almost all the activities. That evidences acceleration in retail trade. Ther was increase from 0% to 0.5% in the quarter ended January”, analyzes the manager of the survey, Isabella Nunes.
She explains that “only one activity recorded decrease, pharmaceuticals, (-0.5%), stability after three months with increase and cumulative 3.5%. The main impacts were those of other personal and domestic articles (7.2%) and supermarkets (1.1%)”.
“All the activities recorded reversed results in relation to December, except for fuels (0.5%) and books (0.2%), which kept their increase, but for different reasons. Fuels are associated to decreases in the price of the last two months, whereas books, to seasonal aspects relative to Christmas time and the back to school period".
Retail trade also increase in January
Extended retail trade also started 2019 with increase, a hike of 1% in January against December. The rate is a better result versus that in the previous month, wich was -1.7%. Against January 2018, the performance was also positive: an increase of 3.5% in volume of sales, with Vehicles and motorcycles, parts and pieces accounting for 1.9 percentage points of the index. That was the 21st positive rate in this type of comparison.
“The performance of vehicles was the main impact, with an increase of 5.7% after two months of decrease (5.8%). In comparison with January last year, there was increase for the sixth month in a row; in the last 12 months, there was stability. The trend to stability remains”, says Isabella.
The quarterly moving average index of extended retail trade ended January with an increase of 0.2%, an improvement in comparison with the December figure (-0.3%). Nevertheless, the cumulative indicator in the last 12 months, having changed from 5% up to December to 4.7% up to January, recorded a decrease in sales.
“By area, there was also a predominance of positive rates in retail trade. In 17 of the 27 Federation Units those rates followed the positive result of the national index. Against January 2018, however, only 13 Federation Units recorded decrease".
“Although sales volume has increased again, it is important to highlight that it is still 6.6% below the top figure of the series, registered in October 2014”, the survey manager explains.
