BRASÍLIA: Brazil’s retail sales unexpectedly rose in February by the most since July 2013, carried by a surprise surge in sales of furniture and appliances. Sales rose 1.2 percent in February after a revised 1.9 percent drop in the prior month, the national statistics agency said Tuesday. That was more than all but two estimates from 34 economists surveyed by Bloomberg, whose median forecast was for sales to remain flat. Sales fell 4.2 percent in February versus the same month in 2015.
Consumer confidence has recently increased from its historic low as inflation returned to the single digits and is expected to slow further. The currency at its strongest level since August has also helped tamp down prices of imported goods. Rising joblessness, the highest interest rates in nearly a decade and uncertainty related to the ongoing impeachment process of President Dilma Rousseff are still weighing on confidence, however.
“It tends to be much more a fluctuation around a downward trend than a trend reversal point,” Jankiel Santos, chief economist at Haitong in Sao Paulo who forecast a 1.3 percent jump in sales, said about the data. “When we look at the labor market we’re not seeing any type of improvement, therefore wage adjustments aren’t going to be that good and we still have high inflation, so purchasing power tends to go down.”
