Coronavirus Severely Impacts Rio de Janeiro’s Retail Economy

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – In Rio de Janeiro, the State Treasury Department issued a report through the Coordination of Economic and Tax Studies (CEET) – which, in turn, falls under the Secretariat of Revenue – to illustrate the economic impacts caused by Covid-19 in the state.

The main losses caused by the social isolation period, so far, have been felt in the clothing and footwear retail sector, with a 75.9 percent decrease in revenue.

In addition, the food and beverage sector of bars, restaurants, snack bars, and bakeries has also suffered losses over 60 percent.

The study was based on the financial turnover in March and the first four days in April, which decreased 14.4 percent between the first and last week.

In addition, the survey compared data on the volume of operations with the incidence of the Circulation of Goods and Services Tax (ICMS) of March 2020 with the same month last year. Based on issued invoices, there was a 10.9 percent drop.

On the other hand, the report showed that the sum of amounts issued on all such invoices increased when compared to March 2019. This is due to the fact that collection has increased from R$99 billion to R$119 billion, thus generating growth of 20 percent.

In sectors, industry grew by 20.73 percent and recorded a 7.57 percent increase in ICMS in comparison to March last year. The number of invoices, however, dropped 3.91 percent.

Wholesale and retail goods had opposite results: the first saw an increase and the second a decrease in the three compared items, respectively. Among the weeks analyzed, only the wholesale ICMS was up (12.6 percent).