Brazil: Retail sales dip in August
Retail sales decreased 3.1% in month-on-month seasonally-adjusted terms in August, contrasting July’s 2.7% increase. The contraction reflected a broad-based downturn across the major sectors, with supermarkets, food, drinks and tobacco, other articles for household and personal use, and fuels and lubricants all declining in August.
On an annual basis, retail sales contracted 4.1% in August, contrasting the 5.7% growth clocked in July and marking the first decline since February. As a result, annual average retail sales growth dropped to 5.0% in August from 5.9% in July, signaling a reversal of the uptrend in the retail trade sector that had been observed over the past six months.