Chilean retail sales rose at the fastest pace in two-and-a-half years in April as early rains and cold weather encouraged consumers to shop for winter clothes earlier than in 2015.
Sales leaped 7.9 percent from the year earlier, the national statistics agency said on its website Monday, compared with the 4.5 percent median forecast of 13 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. Manufacturing fell 1.2 percent over the same period, while industrial output declined 3.4 percent.
The rebound in retail sales is unlikely to last long after unemployment began to edge higher in March following two years of sluggish economic growth, said Felipe Alarcon, an economist with Euroamerica. The boost from shoppers looking for winter fashions will revert by July, he said.
Strong sales “is absolutely temporary and is explained by the clothes and shoes sector,” Alarcon said before today’s report. “Further from all the noise in the numbers, the weakness in the labor market limits the importance of durable goods spending.”
The jobless rate rose to 6.3 percent in the first quarter from 5.9 percent in the month-earlier period.
"When people see that employment is not stable, they don’t take credit decisions, they don’t buy cars and they don’t upgrade their homes,” Alarcon said.
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