From Staff Reports
Brazil’s retail sales rose 9.2% in July from a year ago, said to the national statistics agency. According to a report released Tuesday in Rio de Janeiro, the gain in retail, supermarket, and grocery sales was less than the revised 11.3% increase in June.
Brazil's economy expanded 5.4% in the second quarter this year, boosted by gains in the industrial and service sectors. The nation looks to be on track to grow nearly 5% overall this year, according to government figures released last Wednesday.
Brazil's economy expanded 3.7% last year, and President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has established the goal of a 5% growth rate for the year amid criticism that the nation's economy is expanding slower than the world's other major emerging economies in Russia, India, and China. The four make up the so-called “BRIC” economies.