Brazil Retail Sales Rise 3.8%, More Than Forecast

(RTTNews) - Brazil's retail sales increased for the first time in three months in January, and at a faster-than-expected pace, figures from the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics, or IBGE, showed on Wednesday.

Retails sales rose a seasonally-adjusted 3.8 percent month-on-month in January, reversing a revised 2.8 percent fall in December. That was above the 3.2 percent recovery expected by economists.

Further, this was the biggest change for the month of January since the beginning of the historical series in 2000, the agency said.

The monthly growth in January was spread across research activities, as seven out of eight showed growth. Sales of fabrics, clothing, and footwear alone grew 27.9 percent after four months of decline.

On a yearly basis, retail sales growth accelerated to 2.6 percent in January from 0.4 percent in the previous month. The expected increase was 1.4 percent.