Retail sales grew 1.2% in May, reveals IBGE

In May of this year, Brazilian retail trade recorded a 1.2% increase in sales compared to the previous month, according to the Monthly Trade Survey (PMC) released by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE). Cristiano Santos, manager of the May 2024 PMC survey, highlights that this is the fifth consecutive positive result.

“In other words, all the results for 2024 were positive. In the specific case of the transition from April to May, the results that most influenced this positive result were sales of fabric, clothing and footwear, with 2.0% growth, other personal and household items, with 1.6%, and hypermarkets and supermarkets, with 0.7% growth”, he highlighted.

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Among the eight activities analyzed, five recorded positive performance in May.

Personal and household goods, which includes department stores, opticians and jewelry stores, accumulated a gain of 7.8% in the year. For the research manager, this shows a continuous recovery after a period of significant losses in the previous year.

On the other hand, the furniture and household appliances (-1.2%), fuels and lubricants (-2.5%) and office, IT and communication equipment and materials (-8.5%) segments showed negative results in May.

According to the data, there has been an accumulated increase of 5.6% this year and 3.4% over 12 months.

Performance by Federation Unit

In regional terms, 16 states of the federation recorded an increase in retail sales between April and May of this year. The states of Amapá (3.4%), Mato Grosso (3.0%) and Maranhão (2.2%) stood out with the highest growth. On the other hand, Roraima (-5.9%), Espírito Santo (-2.6%) and Acre (-1.7%) showed the largest drops in this period.

Yearly comparison

Compared to May 2023, retail sales volume grew by 8.1%. This growth was mainly driven by the sectors of other personal and household goods (14.5%), pharmaceutical, medical, orthopedic and perfumery goods (13.6%) and hypermarkets and supermarkets, food products, beverages and tobacco (10.5%).

Three other activities showed negative results: books, newspapers, magazines and stationery registered a drop of 8.9%, fuels and lubricants had a reduction of 3.2%, while equipment and material for office, IT and communication showed a drop of 0.2%.

By Brasil 61