According to the retail sales index announced by the Azores Regional Statistics Service (SREA), the purchase of food products in large commercial establishment grew at constant prices and on year-on-year terms 2.8% in July and 4.3% in the last three months.
Considering the seasonally adjusted values, the growth is even more evident, that is, it stands at 4.8% in the average of the last 12 months, which reflects a stable growth in the household consumption indicator.
In addition to being stable, this positive evolution is also continuous since the positive monthly variation, adjusted for seasonality and calendar purposes, has been registered since June 2017, i.e., for 16 consecutive months.
As for the relation between the purchase of food products with private consumption, recent data from SREA on ATM withdrawals and electronic card purchases show, as of August, a monthly increase of 8.8% in purchases and 2.7% in withdrawals, representing, as whole, an increase of 6.4%.
Overall, withdrawals (about 58.3 million Euros) and electronic card purchases (95.1 million Euros) amounted to more than 153 million Euros last month; 130 million Euros correspond to transactions made with cards issued by national banques.