Monthly Survey of Trade
Volume of trade sales down by 1% in May
July 14, 2023 09h00 AM | Last Updated: July 20, 2023 12h48 AM
Retail trade sales in Brazil dropped by 1% from April to May. Therefore, the cumulative index in the year reached 1.3% whereas, in the last 12 months, it was 0.8%. The interannual comparison also dropped by 1.0% from May 2022, and marked the first negative result after nine months of increases. The data come from the Monthly Survey of Trade, released on July 14 by the IBGE.
In the analysis of the eight activities surveyed, four recorded positive rates and four recorded negative ones. Among the activities that stood out and recorded decreases, hypermarkets, supermarkets, food products, beverages and tobacco, which dropped by 3.2% after recording an increase of 3.6% in April. “This sector represents more than 50% of all the information collected by the PMC. Also, the activity comes from acceleration in April, in a phenomenon that was used to make up for previous decreases,” says Cristiano Santos, manager of the survey. For the researcher, the current scenario led consumers to make options, which ended up concentrating in consumption in hypermarkets and supermarkets in April, which changed in May. “That shows the choice of consumers seems to have been to consume less in this area and more in other activities,” he adds.
Other three activities also recorded decreases: fabric, wearing apparel and footwear (-3.3%), other personal and domestic articles (-2.3%) and furniture and household appliances (-0.7%). Cristiano explains that these three sectors have been affected by the reduction in the number of physical shops of major chains. Not even Mother’s Day, in May, an occasion when trade is more intense, managed to reverse the effect.
Among the increases, pharmaceuticals, medical and orthopedic articles and toiletries stand out, with 2.3% in May. “Although there have been successive increases, sales in these activities accelerated, mainly due to Mother’s Day, Mr. Santos explains. The other three activites that recorded positive rates in the month were: books, newspapers, magazines and stationery (1.7%), fuels and lubricants (1.4%) and office, computer and communication equipment and material (1.1%).
In extended retail trade, which includes vehicles, motorcycles, parts and pieces and construction material, volume of sales also recorded a decrease in May: 1.1%. The activity Vehicles and motorcycles, parts and pieces grew by 2.1% and that of Construction material dropped by 0.9%. The quarterly moving average was 0.1%: Against May 2022, there was an increase of 3%, in the fifth consecutive month with positive changes. Extended retail trade had a cumulative increase of 3.1% in the year. As for the cumulative index in the last twelve months, the change amounted to 0.2%.
In the interannual comparison, sales dropped by 1% after nine months of increase
Against May 2022, volume of retail sales dropped by 1%, with the first negative change after nine months of increases. There was also balance in the sector analysis, with four decreases in eight activities: fabric, wearing apparel and footwear (-18.2%), Other personal and domestic articles (-17.4%), Books, newspapers, magazines and stationery (-6.7%) and Office, computer and communication material and equipment (-4.9%).
The four sectors that recorded increases in this comparison were: Fuels and lubricants (10.8%), Pharmaceuticals, medical and orthopedic articles and toiletries (7.6%), Hyper and supermarket, food products, beverages and tobacco (1.5%) and Furniture and household appliances (0.3%). Considering extended retail trade, the sector of vehicles and motorcycles, parts and pieces recorded an increase of 1.6%. Construction material dropped by 2%, whereas wholesale trade of food products, beverages and tobacco increased by 18.1% between May 2022 and May 2023.
Sales decreased in 23 Federation Units in from April
In the regional analysis, retail trade recorded negative results in 23 of the 27 Federation Units from April to May, with a highlight to drops in Alagoas (-5.9%), Rondônia (-5.3%) and Paraíba (-4.6%). Tocantins (1.8%), Maranhão (0.4%) and Minas Gerais (0.4%) recorded increases, and Amazonas was stable (0.0%).
In this same comparison, extended retail trade decreased in 22 of the 27 Federation Unitss, mainly in Mato Grosso do Sul (-7.0%), Maranhão (-4.8%) and Minas Gerais (-4.7%). From the perspective of increases, the highlights were Pará (5.8%), Ceará (2.3%) and Amazonas (1.9%).
More about the survey
APMC produces indicators to monitor the short-term behavior of retail trade in Brazil, investigating the gross revenue of formal enterprises with 20 or more employed persons and whose major activity is retail trade.
Having started in 1995, the PMC brings monthly results of changes in sales volume and nominal revenue for retail trade and extended retail trade (cars and construction material) for Brazil and Federation Units. The results are available no Sidra. The next release of the survey will be on August 09.
