The Minister of Finance, Dario Durigan, stated that the crisis in some retail companies is caused by three main factors. In an interview with Jornal da Record, he explained that high interest rates, changes in consumer habits, and the loss of financial revenue from companies' own credit cards contributed to the difficult situation faced by the sector.
According to the minister, consumers have preferred to buy online instead of going to physical stores, which caused retailers to increase their dependence on physical store sales without being able to keep up with this change in market behavior.
The third factor mentioned by Durigan involves credit cards and installment plans that some companies offered to customers. When a consumer bought a product such as a sofa using that card, the company received the sale revenue and also financial revenue from the interest charged on that installment plan. With the decline of this modality, companies lost an important source of income.
Durigan added that the internal dynamics of the sector are being affected by the interest rate, which particularly harms some retail companies. He also mentioned the competition among card operators, although the explanation was cut off in the available portion of the interview.
