Retail stocks index rises in March

After a breath at Christmas, with slight drop in inventories, the first quarter of 2017 was not a good time to make adjustment of excess products on the shelves. In March, IE (stock Index) has reached 98.9 points, higher to 1.4% in comparison with February and 4.5 percent over the same month of 2016. The growth of the bookmark in the month was motivated by the fall of 0.7 percentage point (p.p.) in the share of entrepreneurs who claimed to be with sub-optimal stocks which rose from 14.4% in February to 13.7% in March.
Already the proportion of businessmen who claimed to be with stocks above the appropriate registered take high of 0.2 percentage points to move from 36.5% in February to 36.7% in March. Additionally, 49.3% of retailers reported an adequate level of stocks, up 0.7 percentage points compared to the previous month, but well below the registered in 2015, when that portion was 60%.

The data is for IE (stock Index) of FecomercioSP (Federation of trade in goods, services and tourism of the State of São Paulo), which captures the perception of traders about the volume of goods stocked in stores, and ranges from zero (total inadequacy) 200 points (total adequacy). The mark of 100 points is the line between inadequate and fitness.