Brazil Dec retail sales sink 6.1pc second largest monthly fall on record

BRASILIA: Brazilian retail sales slumped 6.1% in December, official figures showed on Wednesday, the biggest fall for that particular month and the second largest of all since comparable records began 20 years ago.

Researchers at government statistics agency IBGE said the fall was due to extremely high levels of sales in the preceding two months, the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic picking up, and high food price inflation.

The 6.1% monthly fall was second only to April's 16.6% plunge at the height of the initial lockdown and quarantines last year, and far more than the 0.5% decline forecast in a Reuters poll of economists.

This meant that retail sales in Latin America's largest economy rose 1.2% last year from 2019, the fourth year-on-year rise in a row, although the slowest of all.

Sales volumes in December also rose 1.2% from the same month a year earlier, IBGE said, less than the 6.0% rise forecast in a Reuters poll.

On a wider basis, including cars and building materials, retail sales in December fell 3.7% on the month, and rose 2.6% from December 2019, IBGE said. Last year, sales by this measure fell 1.5% from 2019.