In August this year, retail sales in Brazil fell 0.3% compared to July. The data comes from the Monthly Trade Survey (PMC), released this Thursday (10) by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE).
The study points out, on the other hand, a growth of 5.1% in relation to August last year and an accumulated increase of 5.1% over the first eight months of 2024. In the last 12 months, the accumulated result is a growth of 4.0%.
PMC manager, Cristiano Santos explains that the negative variation in retail trade in August demonstrated stability in the sector, given the growth in July. “The behavior of trade in 2024 is still positive, only in June we had an effectively negative result (-0.9%). The negative aspect of the August result is the fact that four of the eight activities surveyed registered a significant drop, three remained stable and only one showed an increase”.
In expanded retail trade, which includes vehicles, motorcycles, parts and pieces, construction materials and wholesale of food products, beverages and tobacco, the volume of income reduced 0.8% from July to August. In comparison, in the same period in 2023 there was an increase of 3.1%.
Sectors
In relation to activities, seven of the eight evaluated by PMC suffered a reduction. They were: other articles for personal and domestic use (3.9%), books, magazines and stationery (2.6%), office, IT and communication equipment and material (2.0%) and furniture and household appliances (1 .6%) had the biggest drops.
Other sectors with a drop in sales volume were fabrics, clothing and footwear (0.4%), fuels and lubricants (0.2%) and Hyper, supermarkets, food products, beverages and tobacco (0.1%). Pharmaceutical, medical, orthopedic and perfumery articles were the only sector that expanded between July and August 2024, 1.3%.
“Department stores are the main type of company operating in the Other personal and household articles sector. In 2023, they had a very turbulent year, with records of accounting problems affecting some of the main players in this market, causing them to review their balance sheets. This caused adjustments throughout the production chain, leading to a reduction in the number of physical stores. The increase in competition with other niches and the seasonality of promotions also influenced the drop in sales volume in August”, says Santos.
States
In the federative units, between July and August 2024, 17 of the 26 states had a negative performance in sales volume. The worst results were Minas Gerais, with a drop of 2.4%, Tocantins, with 2.0% and Rondônia, with 1.8%. On the other hand, Roraima (2.2%), Ceará (2.1%) and Bahia (1.3%) were the states that stood out with positive results, registering increases.
A similar scenario persisted in expanded retail trade. Lower sales volumes were recorded in 16 states, with emphasis on Mato Grosso do Sul, with a reduction of 4.5%, Minas Gerais, 2.9% and Acre, 2.5%.
Meanwhile, the states of Rio Grande do Sul (1.9%), Rio Grande do Norte (1.3%) and Roraima (1.3%) ended the month of August with positive results. Amapá and Distrito Federal were the federative units to record stability (0.0%) according to the survey.
*Intern under the supervision of Vinícius Lisboa.
