PMC
Sales rise 8% in June, worst semester of Trade since 2016
August 12, 2020 09h00 AM | Last Updated: August 12, 2020 03h50 PM
Helena Pontes/IBGE News Agency
Volume of sales of the retail increased 8% in June, after the record growth of 14.4% in May. Despite the positive figures in these two months, the retail closed the first semester at -3.1%, compared with the first semester of 2019, influenced by the social distancing measures against the Covid-19 pandemic. Released today (12) by the IBGE, this half-year result is the lowest one since the second semester of 2016 (-5.6%).
"The positive results were expected, because we came from a very low comparison basis, which was the month of April (-17%). As a result, this growth was virtually widespread, distributed along nearly all the activities. We established many records since the beginning of the pandemic, either negative or positive, so the figures are very volatile," explains Cristiano Santos, manager of the survey.
Except for Pharmaceuticals, medical and orthopedic articles, toiletries and cosmetics, which dropped 2.7% over May, all the other activities surveyed grew in this comparison. The highest percentages came from Books, newspapers, magazines and stationery (69.1%), Fabric, apparel and footwear (53.2%), Furniture and household appliances (31%) and Other articles of personal and domestic use (26.1%). Office, computer and communication material and equipment (22.7%), Fuels and lubricants (5.6%) and Hypermarkets, supermarkets, food products, beverages and tobacco (0.7%) were the other activities that registered positive figures.
"There is an adaptation movement. Both Furniture and household appliances and Books, newspapers, magazines and stationery are two activities with a higher potential to adaptation, mainly in the small and medium enterprises, whose trade was based on physical sales. Over time, they learned with the pandemic how to offer their products differently and operate with delivery, for example," analyzes Santos.
According to the researcher, as the activities of pharmaceuticals and toiletries, and hypermarkets and supermarkets were considered essential during the pandemic, they were not so impacted like other activities. "The hypermarkets sector weights a lot on the indicator. They contributed with 50.8% this month. The big variation of the other activities was limited by this sector, which held the index by 8%," completes him.
In the extended retail trade – which includes the activities of vehicles, motorcycles, parts and pieces, and construction material – volume of sales increased 12.6% in relation to May. The results recorded a lower impact of social distancing in the trade for the second month in a row. Of all the enterprises collected by the survey, 12.9% reported an impact in the June revenue due to the measures of social distancing. This figure was 18.1% in May.
Sales grow in 24 Federation Units
Volume of sales was positive in 24 Federation Units between May and June, highlighted by Pará (39.1%), Amazonas (35.5%) and Ceará (29.3%). Rio Grande do Sul (-9.0%), Paraíba (-2.4%) and Mato Grosso (-2.0%) were the states which dropped in this same comparison.
Trade grows 0.5% over June 2019
The retail trade grew 0.5% in June over the same month last year, after declining 6.4% in May 2020, representing the first rate on the positive side after three months of consecutive drops. On the other hand, the cumulative indicator over the last 12 months registered a stable pace of sales (0.0% in May and 0.1% in June).
Compared with June 2019, the extended retail trade fell 0.9% against -15.3% in May 2020, the fourth negative rate in a row. As a result, the extended retail accrued -7.4% in the cumulative indicator in 2020 against -8.7% accrued until May. The cumulative indicator over the last 12 months changed from -1.0% up to May to -1.3% up to June.
