Brazil’s retail sector grew more than expected in March and ended the first quarter with gains, despite high inflation in the country that erodes consumer confidence and income.
However, despite the sector having registered progress in the first three months of the year, the recovery is still not widespread among activities, according to the IBGE.
Retail sales gained 1.0% in March compared to the previous month, against expectations in a Reuters poll of a 0.4% advance.
The data reported this Tuesday (10) by the IBGE (Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics) leads the sector to end the first quarter with a gain of 1.9% compared to the previous three months, the highest result on this basis of comparison. since the second quarter of 2021 (+2.2%).
“The trajectory had been limping, irregular. These three months of high mean a strong quarter, although the growth is still not homogeneous among all activities”, explained the manager of the survey, Cristiano Santos.
The March result leaves the sector 2.6% above the pre-pandemic level of February 2020.
In comparison with the same month of the previous year, the growth was 4.0%, against a forecast of a high of 2.10%.
“The advancement of employment causes income to increase and helps sales performance. But higher inflation is responsible for putting a brake on trade, in some activities in particular,” said Santos.
“Inflation affects a lot of fuels and hyper and supermarkets especially, but it impacts in a way as a whole”, he added.
Among the eight activities surveyed, six had gains in comparison with February. The highlights were office, computer and communication equipment and supplies, with a gain of 13.9%, and other articles for personal and domestic use, whose sales rose 3.4% — in this case, there was a good contribution from department stores.
“The major retailers began to rehearse a resumption of physical stores, with expansion mainly in the Northeast and North, but across the country,” said Santos.
Expanded retail trade, which includes vehicles, motorcycles, parts and pieces and construction material, increased by 0.7% of sales. The 2.2% increase in construction materials offset the 0.1% decline in vehicles.
Including expanded retail, the IBGE explained that six sectors are below the pre-pandemic level, and four above.
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