BUILDING MATERIALS SALES RETREAT 12.4% in AUGUST

Sales of construction materials declined 12.4 percent in August compared to the previous year and accumulated fall of 6.7 percent in the eight months to 2014, according to the Brazilian Association of the Industry of building materials (Abramat). Compared to July, there was growth of 7.1%.In addition, sales of basic materials grew 4.8% compared with July and fell 14.2 percent over August last year.Year to date, the decline is 8.3%. We finishing materials, there was an increase in sales of 11% month-to-month and annual fall of 8.4%. Between January and August, the turnover had fallen 4.1%.