Retail sales change 0.1% in April

The volume of sales in the Brazilian retail trade changed by 0.1% in April this year compared to the previous month. The result came after increases of 0.8% in March and 3.8% in January and stability in February. The data are from the Monthly Survey of Commerce (PMC), released this Wednesday (14) by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE).

In April, the sector registered increases of 0.3% in the quarterly moving average, of 0.5% in comparison with April of last year, of 1.9% in the first four months of the year and of 0.9% in the accumulated of 12 months.

In comparison with March of this year, only three of the eight activities surveyed by the IBGE were up: supermarkets, food, beverages and tobacco (3.2%), books, newspapers, magazines and stationery (1%) and pharmaceutical, medical, orthopedic articles and perfumery (0.3%).

The positive change of 0.1% in retail was sustained mainly by the supermarket and food sector, which had the highest growth since March 2020 (10.5%).

The result can be explained by this year’s Easter sales, which were concentrated in April, as was the case before the covid-19 pandemic.

On the other hand, five activities had a drop in sales volume in the period: equipment and material for office, information technology and communication (-7.2%), fabrics, apparel and footwear (-3.7%), fuels and lubricants (- 1.9%), other articles for personal and domestic use (-1.4%) and furniture and appliances (-0.5%).

According to IBGE researcher Cristiano Santos, this behavior of relative stability in the sector (change of 0.1%) can be explained by negative factors, which prevented a greater rise, and positive factors, which prevented a fall.

“We had some negative influences in this passage from March to April, such as credit to individuals, which had a downward variation of almost 10%, the real income mass indicators also had a downward variation, of 0.7%, and the number of employed people dropped a little”, he said.

On the positive side, Santos highlights the reduction in inflation. “Inflation has been losing pace over time. The General Index fell from 4.65% to 4.18% from March to April, especially food at home”.

The sector’s nominal revenue fell 0.2% from March to April, but grew 2.4% compared to April last year, 6.9% in the year and 11% in the accumulated 12 months.

expanded retail

Expanded retail, which also includes construction materials and sales of vehicles and auto parts, had a 1.6% drop in sales volume, from March to April, due to the 5.9% loss in the activity of vehicles, motorcycles , parts and pieces and 0.8% in building materials.

In the accumulated of 12 months, expanded retail remained stable. In other types of comparison, however, the sector had increases: quarterly moving average (1.3%), in relation to April 2022 (3.1%) and in the accumulated result for the year (3.3%).