Supermarkets should grow 4.5% in 2014

At the end of 2012 and early 2013, the initial expectation of São Paulo supermarket Association (APAS) as regards the growth for this year in the supermarket industry revolved around 5 to 5.5%. However, the inflation that ravaged the Brazilian economy over the first half of the year has impacted directly on the purchasing power of the population and, consequently, sales suffered a decline due to the widespread high prices, which brought new projections for the closing of the year. In this context, the expectation of growth for the industry, already in the month of may, hovered around 4.5%, which must be confirmed by the end of 2013. So far, the supermarket sector presents a real growth of approximately 3% for 2012. With the completion of the soccer World Cup in Brazil in 2014, the food and beverage sector must be positively impacted and, in this way, the expectation of growth is on the order of 4.5% from 2013. Once again, the industry is expected to grow above the Brazilian GDP and other economic activities, which will provide the heating of the generation of employment and, consequently, the evolution of Brazilian income. Such projection is significant, since the sector already shows an increase of this magnitude in 2013 and, therefore, the basis for comparison is high.