Both rates are accumulated in the year, in the seasonally adjusted series. In the seasonally adjusted comparison between December and November 2007, retail sales remained stable and nominal revenue changed by 0.4%. In relation to December 2006, the volume of retail trade sales increased by 9.0% and nominal trade, by 13.1%. In 2007, the activities Textiles, apparel and footwear and Books, newspapers, magazines and stationery articles (with increases of 10.7% and 7.1% in relation to 200, respectively) had their best results in all the series for Monthly Survey of Trade.

In 2007, in the seasonally adjusted series, the figures for volume of sales and nominal revenue of sales in the country had accumulated increase of 9.9% and 14.1%, respectively. In the series without seasonal adjustment, the volume of sales increased 9.0% over December 2006 and accumulated 9.6% in the year. Nominal revenue increased 13.1% in relation to the same month in 2006 and accumulated 11.8% in the year (Tables 1 and 2).

In the monthly comparison (December versus November 2007), retail trade had change rates of 0.0% for volume of sales and of 0.4% for nominal revenue. This deceleration, however, was not enough to change the trend of growth shown by the quarterly moving average of the fixed base indexes (Graphs 1 and 2).

In the seasonally adjusted series, which was calculated for four of the eight activities which form retail trade, only one had a positive result: Hypermarkets, supermarkets, food products, beverages and tobacco (0.2%). Other results were: Furniture and household appliances (-6.2%); Textiles, apparel and footwear (-2.3%); and Fuels and lubricants (-2.3%). In the same comparison, the segment Vehicles, motorcycles, parts and pieces, which belong to Extended retail trade, also fell (-2.1%) (Table 1).

In relation to December 2006, there was increase of the volume of sales of the eight retail trade activities, whose rates, in order of importance to the overall result, were: Hypermarkets, supermarkets, food products, beverages and tobacco (5.6%); Furniture and household appliances (11.8%); Other articles of personal and domestic use (17.4%) Textiles, apparel and footwear (10.1%); Office, material and computer equipment (38.4%); Pharmaceutical, medical, orthopedic and perfumery articles and cosmetics (12.2%); Fuels and lubricants (3.4%) and Books, newspapers, magazines and stationery articles (6.1%) (Table 1).

ANNUAL RESULTS

In 2007, the volume of sales of the subsector Hypermarkets, supermarkets, food products, beverages and tobacco increased 6.4% in relation to 2006 and accounted for a third of the overall rate of retail trade in the year (Table 3). This performance reflected the improvements of income and the expansion of credit.

In 2007, the activity Furniture and household appliances accounted for the second main impact on the result of Retail trade (24% of the overall rate), and increased 15.4% in terms of volume of sales in relation to the previous year. Favorable conditions to consumer credit, improvement of real income and employment and fall of prices, caused by the competition with imported goods, were the main factors accounting for the positive result of the activity for the fourth consecutive year.

In 2007, the volume of sales of Other articles of personal and domestic use, the third main impact on the rate of trade sales (18%), increased by 22.2% in relation to 2006. Encompassing segments such as department stores, glasses shops, jewelry shops, sporting goods stores, toy stores, etc., this activity was also influenced by the favorable macroeconomic scenario of the country.

In 2007, the activity Textiles, apparel and footwear, the fourth most important contribution to the overall retail trade rate, increased 10.7% in relation to 2006, reaching the best result of the segment in all the period covered by the survey. The fifth main contribution to the overall result in 2007 was that of the segment Pharmaceutical, medical, orthopedic and perfumery articles, which increased by 8.9% in relation to the previous year. The increase of salary mass, the popularization of generic medicines and the diversity of products available were the basis of the positive performance of the segment for the fifth consecutive year.

Fuels and lubricants, the sixth biggest contribution to the overall rate, had, after two years, increase of 5.1% in its volume of sales, in relation to the previous year. This performance was mainly due to the fall of prices, together with the increase of economy which was reflected in the increase of sales of new vehicles, and consequently, in the size of the fleet. 

As the seventh main positive impact on the result of retail trade in the year, the activity Office, computer and communication material and equipment had increase of volume of sales (29.4%) in comparison with year 2006. Among the factors which determined this performance, it is worth mentioning the significant fall of prices of computer science products, which resulted not only from the fiscal measures of the government to reduce digital exclusion, but also to higher value of currency, which has reduced the price of raw material and of imported products of this subsector.

Reflecting the increase of economy in 2007, the subsector Books, newspapers, magazines and stationery articles had the best result of its time series: 7.1% in relation to 2006. Even so, the activity had the highest impact on the overall retail trade rate.

Extended retail trade (retail trade and the activities Vehicles, motorcycles, parts and pieces and Construction material, the changes observed in relation to the previous year were 13.5% for volume of sales and 15.1% for nominal revenue of sales.

The volume of sales of Vehicles, motorcycles, parts and pieces increased 13.5% in relation to December 2006, resulting in accumulated increase of 22.6% in the year. Construction material increased 10.4% over December 2006, having accumulated 10.8% for 2007, compared to the same period in the previous year. This occurred due to official measures of incentive to construction, besides a favorable economic conjuncture.  

RESULTS BY AREA

By Federative Units, the seasonally adjusted results for volume of sales show, in the month/previous month comparison, 10 (ten) states with positive changes and 17 (seventeen) with negative ones. The main increases occurred in Maranhão (3.1%); Espírito Santo (2.6%); and Mato Grosso (2.2%). The main falls were those of Amazoneas (-9.8%); Roraima (-4.7%); Amapá (-4.1%); Pernambuco (-3.6%) and Goiás (-2.0%).

Twenty-four of the 27 Federative Units had positive results for volume of sales in the comparison December 07/December 06, and the main changes were those which occurred in Rio Grande do Norte (15.5%); Maranhão (14.9%); Mato Grosso (13.8%); São Paulo (13.7%); and e Rio Grande do Sul (10.9%). The negative results occurred in Roraima (-7.1%); Amazonas (-3.9%) and Acre (–0.2%). In terms of the participation in the rate of retail trade, the highlights, in order, were, São Paulo (13.7%); Rio de Janeiro (6.5%); Minas Gerais (5.7%); Bahia (8.8%); and Rio Grande do Sul (4.4%).

For extended retail trade, the highest monthly rates of volume of sales occurred in Espírito Santo (17.9%); Tocantins (14.3%); Rio Grande do Norte (13.8%); Rondônia (13.0%); and Mato Grosso (13.0%). Concerning the impact on the overall result of the sector, the highlights were São Paulo (12.3%); Rio de Janeiro (7.4%); Minas Gerais (10.1%); Paraná (9.4%); and Rio Grande do Sul (7.7%).

ACCUMULATED REGIONAL RESULTS

In terms of results accumulated in 2007, the biggest increases in volumes of sales, the major increases in terms of volume of sales were those of  Alagoas (19.2%); Maranhão (14.3%); Mato Grosso do Sul (13.3%); São Paulo (12.5%); and Mato Grosso (12.3%). The state of Roraima was the only one with negative change (-0.1%) (Graph 3).

For extended retail trade, all Federative Units had positive results. The main rates were: 28.7% for Rondônia; 23.0% for Acre; 20.5% for Alagoas; 19.8% for Amapá; 19.5% for Tocantins; and 19.4% for Maranhão.

QUARTERLY RESULTS

There was slight acceleration of the increase of volume of sales of retail trade, from the third to the fourth semester of the year, with increase from 9.3% to 9.6%. As for extended retail trade, the rate remained statistically stable, having changed from 13.5% to 13.4% (Table 4).

Among the tem activities surveyed, four had faced deceleration of increase in the fourth quarter of the year: Furniture and household appliances, with 16.0% of change in the third quarter, and 13.5% in the fourth one; Other articles of personal and domestic use (from 21.6% to 20.7%0; Vehicles and motorcycles, parts an pieces (from 23.0% to 21.7%), and Books, newspapers, magazines and stationary articles (from 8.8% to 7.1%).

On the other hand, with bigger rhythm of volume of sales, there are the activities: Pharmaceutical, medical, orthopedic and perfumery articles and cosmetics (from 10.2% to 11.3%); Office material, computer and communication equipment (from 33.2% to 38.2%); Construction material (from 9.3% to 14.0%); Fuels and lubricants (from 4.2% to 5.2%); Textiles, apparel and footwear (from 10.2% to 11.9%).

Hypermarkets, supermarkets, food products, beverages and tobacco remained stable between the last three quarters, with change of 5.8%.

RESULTS BY SEMESTER

The second semester of 2007 had increase of 9.5% in relation to the same period in the previous year, a result below that of the first semester, when the rate reached 9.8% and was the best one in all the survey time series of the Monthly Survey of Trade (Graph 4).