New Year’s Day fell on a Sunday, which made room for one more working day than in January 2022
By Beth Moreira
Retail sales grew 4.9% in January 2023, discounting inflation, compared to the same month in 2022, points out the Cielo do Varejo Amplified Index (ICVA). In nominal terms, which mirror the sales revenue observed by the retailer, the index registered a high of 13.8%.
According to Cielo, January was a month favored by calendar effects. New Year’s Day fell on a Sunday, which made room for one more business day than in January 2022, when January 1st fell on a Saturday. Discounting these effects, growth in January was 4.5%.
According to Vitor Levi, data and innovation superintendent at Cielo, January marked the 15th consecutive month of retail acceleration. “The month performed well. The three macro-sectors recorded growth, with emphasis on Services. In part, this can be explained by the wave of the omicron variant, which harmed the results in January last year and benefited the month of January this year in the comparison. This effect becomes clearer when we observe the drop suffered by the Drugstores and Pharmacies sector”, he says.
Sectors
Discounting inflation and disregarding calendar effects, ICVA data indicate that all macrosectors grew in January. This situation has not occurred since May 2022.
The biggest highlight was Services, leveraged by Tourism and Transport. “It is possible to assume that this increase is still linked to the repressed demand caused by the pandemic, which made travel and displacement difficult for almost two years”.
The Gas Station segment was the one that most contributed to the increase in the Non-Durable Goods sector. In the Durable and Semi-durable Goods sector, the highlight was the Optics and Jewelery segment.
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Regions
According to the deflated and calendar-adjusted ICVA, the results of each region in relation to January 2022 were: South (+5.1%), Southeast (+4.2%), Northeast (+3.6% ), Midwest (+3.2%) and North (+3.2%).
By nominal ICVA – which does not consider the discount for inflation – and with calendar adjustment, the highlights were the regions: Southeast (+15.4%) and South (+13.2%). In sequence are the Northeast (+10.2%), the Midwest (+9.9%) and the North (+9.4%).
The Cielo Extended Retail Index (ICVA) monitors the evolution of Brazilian retail on a monthly basis, according to sales made in 18 sectors mapped by Cielo, from small shopkeepers to large retailers. They account for 1.1 million retailers accredited to the company.
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