Last February, revenues from retail sales grew 0.8% compared to January, thus stringing together seven months of increases and exceeding the level of February 2020, prior to Covid-19, being the first advance in a 24-month comparison since the pandemic began, according to figures released yesterday by the National Institute of Geography and Statistics (Inegi).
Among the nine merchandise categories measured by Inegi, the most dynamic was textiles, clothing and footwear, which had an advance of 3.4%, followed by motor vehicles and fuel (+2.8%), Internet sales and catalog ( +1.6%) and self-service and department stores (+1.5 percent).
Compared to February 2020, retail revenues were 2.4% higher and within the indicator full recoveries were observed in five of the nine merchandise items.
The line of greatest advance is that of Internet and catalog sales (+69.8%), followed by health care items (+12.1%), hardware products (+9.9%) and self-service and department stores (+7.1 percent).
Meanwhile, the lines that have not yet managed to exceed their pre-pandemic levels are textiles, clothing and footwear (-11.3%), stationery and entertainment (-9.1%), groceries (-8.4%) and household goods (-4.9 percent). ).
“Despite the good performance, the behavior looks less clear from a disaggregated perspective, since only four of the nine main items have materialized the recovery, so this is due more to the push of some of the weighty sectors instead of being generalized”, said Marcos Arias, an analyst at Grupo Financiero Monex. In the economist’s opinion, going forward the indicator will continue to face the challenges posed by inflationary pressures, which have not subsided.
“Inflationary pressures continue to be an obstacle, since elements such as food sales and electronics seem to be affected by the rise in prices, so anchoring expectations will be key for the improvement to be sustainable,” he added.
Compared to February 2020, retail revenues were 2.4% higher and within the indicator full recoveries were observed in five of the nine merchandise items.