Brazil Retail Sales Rise Most In 20 Months

(RTTNews) - Brazil's retail sales expanded at the fastest pace in more than one-and-a-half years, figures from the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics, or IBGE, showed on Wednesday.

Retail sales rose 2.5 percent month-on-month in January, reversing a 1.4 percent fall in December. That was well above the 0.2 percent rebound expected by economists.

Further, this was the fastest growth since May 2022, when sales had risen 2.7 percent.

The volume of sales of fabrics, clothing, and shoes surged 8.5 percent monthly in January, and those of office equipment and supplies, IT, and communication advanced by 6.1 percent.

On a yearly basis, retail sales growth accelerated to 4.1 percent in January from 1.2 percent a month ago. The expected increase was 1.3 percent.