Trade confidence fell sharply in February, according to Fedevelopment

On March 24, the director of Fedesarrollo, Luis Fernando Mejia, revealed that the fall in commercial confidence in Colombia fell 2.1 percentage points compared to January, reaching 37.4%.

According to Caracol Radio, Mejía said that merchant confidence in this month was below the average of the previous three months (40.7%); this shows a slowdown in growth in the sales sector.

He clarified that this decrease in traders' confidence is due to an increase of 6.5 percentage points in merchandise existence and a slight reduction of 0.2 PP in the current economic perception.

Likewise, the director of Fedevelopment assured the media that the industrial confidence index rose 2.8 percentage points to 15.5%.

On the sales side, in January of this year retail sales continued on the path of growth, assured the Ministry of Commerce and Industry. According to an analysis by the Office of Economic Studies of the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Tourism, based on figures from DANE, in the first month of this year the increase in retail sales was 20.9% compared to the same period in 2021.

The report highlighted that the 19 retail trade sectors analysed reported growth. The greatest increase was recorded in sectors such as vehicles, with a variation of 70.6 per cent; fuels with 16.6 per cent; motorcycles with 30.4 per cent; clothing with 71.4 per cent, and footwear with 97.3 per cent.

According to the Industry and Commerce portfolio, the good performance of this sector also led to an increase in employment of 2.2%. By region, sales dynamics were recorded in all departments measured by DANE, with Antioquia, Cundinamarca, Santander, Valle, Atlántico and Bogotá standing out.

With regard to electronic commerce, the report highlights that its growth was 160.7% compared to 2020, the month during which the pandemic had not yet been recorded in the country. This confirms the positive evolution that this activity has had during the health emergency. However, compared to January 2021 it fell by 12.1%.

Retail sales also positively impacted the Trade Confidence Index measured by Fedesarrollo through surveys of companies in the sector, which stood at 39.5%. This is 7.5 percentage points above the figure reported in the same month last year.

This index has been on positive ground for the past 19 months, which is a sign that the country's secure economic recovery promoted by the government is progressing.

Despite the good numbers, inflation worries Colombians

The National Administrative Department of Statistics (Dane) presented the results of the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for the month of February 2022. During that month the monthly change in CPI was 1.63%, while so far this year it has been 3.33% and the annual variation was 8.01%.

In February 2022, the annual change in CPI was 8.01%, that is, 6.45 percentage points higher than that reported in the same period last year, when it was 1.56%, according to the bank's statement.

They detailed that the greatest variations occurred in the Education (4.48%) and Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages (3.26%) divisions. It should be noted that in January, the Education division did not show any variation, while Food and Alcoholic Beverages stood at 3.79%.

In this regard, the entity explained that the highest price increases were recorded in the Education division, specifically in the subclasses of pre-primary and primary education, in which the variation was 4.72 per cent; secondary education with 4.62 per cent; and enrollment and enrollment for technical, technological and university careers with 4, 47%.

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