04/11/2024 – 9:12
Retail sales in the country grew 1% from January to February and reached the highest level in the historical series that began in January 2000, IBGE reported this Thursday, 11th.
It was the second consecutive increase, after the index registered growth of 2.8% in January. The last time retail recorded two consecutive months of growth was in September 2022 (0.5% in August and 0.7% in September). The data are from the Monthly Commerce Survey (PMC).
As a result, Brazilian trade exceeded the previous record level of activity (October 2020) by 0.5%, and reached a level 7.1% above the pre-pandemic level, registered in February 2020.
Brazilian retail accumulated an increase of 6.1% in the two months and registered growth of 2.3% in 2 months.
“Among the highlights of this passage is that we observed two consecutive months of increases, which has not happened since mid-2022. However, at that time the combined growth of the two months was smaller, less intense. Another aspect to be highlighted is that in the last two years either January or February came stronger, but with a subsequent drop. In 2024, there was an increase in both January and February”, assessed the research manager, Cristiano Santos.
Result above expected
The expectation in a Reuters survey was a drop of 1% in the monthly comparison and an increase of 3.3% compared to a year before.
Six of the eight activities surveyed by IBGE advanced in February. Among them, the highlights were the sectors of Pharmaceutical, medical, orthopedic and perfumery articles (9.9%) and Other articles for personal and domestic use (4.8%), which exerted the main influences on the total result of the retail business.
“These results reiterate a stronger GDP reading in 2024 due to the weight that Retail has in national accounts. I maintain GDP projection at 2.2% in 2024. The market should revise this year's GDP a little further in Focus”, said economist André Perfeito.
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