Retail to have record growth in 2007
Folha de S. Paulo - 01/17/2008
Consumers anticipated their Christmas shopping. Consequence: a strong growth of retailing last November, when sales grew 9.9% in the comparison with the same period of 2006. It was the highest increase ever for that month according to the Commercial Monthly Survey conducted by the IBGE, started in 2001. In the accumulated from January to November, 2007, the increase reached 9.7%, a rhythm that, if confirmed with the data from December, will be the best of the recent history of the sector. It is expected that it surpasses the 2004 performance, when the expansion was 9.3%. In 2006, commerce grew 6.2%. From October to November, sales went up by 1.6% in the series free of seasonal influences. According to the IBGE, the abundant credit and the increasingly longer payment periods were the main drivers of commerce in 2007. The exchange rate, favorable to importation, represented the second most important source of incentive for sales, evaluates the institute. According to Nilo Lopes da Macedo, economist from the Coordination of Services and Commerce of the IBGE, November's result was also leveraged by the early payment of the first part of Christmas year-end salary of the pensioners of the INSS, carried out in September, and for the desire of the consumers to anticipate their end-of-the-year shopping. Among the segments with greatest weight, the segment of furniture and electric household devices was the one with the best performance - an increase of 16% a year, 15.5% in comparison with November, 2006 and 1.4% in the comparison with October. The sales of clothes and footwear went up by 10.8% in the accumulated in the year and 12.4% in relation to November, 2006. In relation to October, there was an increase of 1.6%, the greatest of all sectors. On its turn, the segment of hyper and supermarkets and the other food stores did not grow as much, since it is more dependent on the evolution of the income, which had a smaller increase than that of credit. The increase was 6.5% in the accumulated of the year. In November, the increase reached 6.4% in comparison with the same month of 2006 and 0.8% in comparison with October.