translated from Spanish: CNC confirmed increased retail sales in MRI during February

The National Chamber of Commerce (CNC) reported the increase in retail sales in the Metropolitan Region during the month of February, which marked “an annual real hike of 2.9%, in terms of the result in equivalent premises the indicator marked a real 4.5% hike in the second month of the year.” According to TNC representatives, between January and February, total local face-to-face sales fell by 0.5% real, while, in terms of equivalent premises, a marginal hike of 0.6% real was generated when the two months were combined. In this context, they further added that after “analyzing moving quarters there was a sharp uptick in the last December-February period following the sharp declines of the previous two periods resulting from the social outburst of 18 October which strongly affected retail players.” According to CNC Studies Manager Bernardita Silva, “the retail sector accelerated its sales in the second month of the year, after months of falls and after closing the last quarter of 2019 with a sharp decline due to the social crisis due to the social crisis on October 18. For its part, consumer confidences also recovered slightly in February, although still on pessimistic ground, and on the labour market side the social crisis led to a change in employment composition, with an increase in self-employment and informality.”

Original source in Spanish