Data Release: 10/07/2022
Retail Sales – Aug/22
In August, restricted trade fell by 0.1% in comparison with July, a better-than-expected performance (-0.3%). In broad retail, the headline came in worse than expected, with a drop of 0.6%, facing the expectations of -0.2%.
- Positive highlights: textiles, clothing, and footwear (13.0%), fuels and lubricants (3.6%), books, newspapers, magazines, and stationery (2.1%), furniture and appliances (1.0%), hyper, supermarkets, food products, beverages and smoke (0.2%), vehicles and motorcycles (4.8%).
- Negative highlights: office, computer and communication equipment and supplies (-1.4%), other personal and household items (-1.2%), pharmaceutical, medical, orthopedic and perfumery items (-0.3%), building material (-0.8%).
View: retail has performed slightly worse when compared to other sectors of economic activity, however, there are some divergences in expectations for the sector. The heated labor market and the new aid in the amount of BRL 600 may increase the consumption intention of families, but we still live in a moment of tightening financial conditions, where the natural thing is that activity data have a weaker performance. Trade surveys show an improvement in expectations, but this restrictive scenario should cause activity to lose some of that strength in the last two quarters of the year.
