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Retail sales grow 2.3% in 2018, highest rise over the last 5 years
February 13, 2019 09h00 AM | Last Updated: February 13, 2019 11h10 AM
The retail trade closed 2018 with a rise of 2.3%, the highest annual rate since 2013, when sales increased 4.3%. It was the second consecutive positive result, standing slightly above the performance in 2017, which rose 2.1%. Even so, the cumulative growth of 4.4% in the last two years did not offset the drop of 10.3% in 2015 and 2016.
The information is from the Monthly Survey of Trade - PMC, released today by the IBGE. Despite the growth in the cumulative index in the year, the sales lost pace in the second semester, as explained by Isabella Nunes, manager of the survey. "It was a quarter marked by the rise in the dollar, uncertainties of the electoral period and recovery from the truckers´ strike, though with a positive balance as a whole", summarized her.
In the monthly figure, the sales in December fell 2.2% over November, though they increased 1.8% compared with December 2017. "The drop in December was expected, since the sales skyrocketed in November due to Black Friday", explains Nunes.
The sales of hypermarkets, supermarkets, food products, beverages and tobacco rose 3.8% and registered the biggest positive influence, followed by the sectors of other articles of personal and domestic use (7.6%) and pharmaceuticals, medical and orthopedic articles, toiletries and cosmetics (5.9%).
On the other hand, the activities that recorded the major drops in sales were fuels and lubricants (-5%), fabric, apparel and footwear (-1.6%), furniture and domestic appliances (-1.3%) and books, newspapers, magazines and stationery (-14.7%).
"Supermarkets, personal articles and pharmaceuticals include products that are part of the daily life. In a stable economy, they are sectors that naturally grow. Among the activities that dropped, the sector of fuels and lubricants stood out. In 2018, the prices in this sector increased above the inflation", says Nunes.
Sales in car sector record highest rise in 11 years
In the extended retail trade, which includes the sectors of vehicles and construction material, sales increased 5%, the highest rate over the last six years. This result was strongly influenced by the sales of vehicles, motorcycles, parts and pieces, which rose 15.1% in 2018, the highest rate since 2007, when it grew 22.6%.
"This performance can be explained by the improvement in the funding conditions, reflected in the reduction of the interest rates and in the increase in the volume of credit for the acquisition of vehicles", concludes the researcher.
