Appliance sale back up 8.4%

The poor performance of the economy and the high-dollar made Brazilian postpone purchases of products like kitchen appliances, home appliances and computers at the beginning of the year.
According to research company GfK, early real-time information service of Value, sales of durable goods retreated 8.4% in the first quarter of this year, over the same period in 2014, to R $ 26,03 billion. The figures consider purchases made by consumers in retail and represent a good fall sharper than the country's economy, which was 0.2% in the same range. The shrinkage in revenue between January and March could have been greater were it not for the price adjustments carried out in the period. The higher prices offset, in part, the retraction in volume sold, which, in some categories, was much bigger than the revenues. In refrigerators, for example, revenue fell 3.2% by March. Already the volume sold retreated 7%. In stoves, the reductions were 8.6% and 12.9%, respectively.
The year 2014 was strong for the durable goods sector due to the purchases of Televisions for the World Cup and surge in sales of smartphones.
The $ 2.4 billion that are no longer worn in early 2015 represent almost twice the revenue of the country's largest home appliance maker, Whirlpool, during the period ($ 1.5 billion). "The consumer is with standing behind with high interest rates, inflation and rising unemployment," said Oliver Römerscheidt, Director of GfK. According to him, the expectation is that the scenario for the sector just introduce some recovery in the second half. "There is no sign of improvement until April [last month with consolidated data by GfK]".
Of the seven sectors in which the company divides the survey, telecommunications grew only in the first quarter: 25.9%, to R $ 9.65 billion. The result was driven by a high of 34 percent in sales of smartphones. The category represents 37 percent of the market for durable goods in the country. Despite the significant improvement, the thread is not immune to the adverse scenario. According to research firm IDC, the pace of expansion of the Smartphone market should decrease this year.
In the survey of GfK, the photography segment had the biggest fall, of 62%. Römerscheidt said that the advancement of smartphones is ruining the segment of compact cameras, with prices between $ 300 and $ 400. "The industry is migrating to semipro products, with higher average ticket," he said.
Computer segments and Brown line (TVs, audio and video equipment etc) the falls outweighed the 31%. A pullback in selling TVs was already expected due to the high base of comparison. The Brazilian bought more appliances in the first months of last year, waiting for the World Cup. In the computer segment, the high-dollar, and consequently the price of computers, the consumer.
The white line, the de saldões were not sufficient to stimulate the interest of buyers. Sales fell 4 percent by March. The small appliances, they were keeping a good performance because they are a cheaper alternative to equipment in white line also presented fall: 1.5%, to $ 2.4 billion.