ANTAD, Mexican retail group, said that sales of its members' same-store has increased 6 per cent in December 2009, which was the maximum growth for any month last year.

ANTAD, which groups around 17000 stores including 2,815 supermarkets all over the world, said that because of the sales growth in December, complete year’s sales growth has reached to 0.8%.

Mexican Retailer’s net sales in December, which comprised sales of stores opened for less than a year, increased 12 per cent to 105.6 billion pesos, whereas, net sales for full year jumped 7.4 per cent to MXN839.6 billion.

Aggressive promotional advertisements were the factors that encouraged consumers to purchase nonessential items. These promotions included lengthy interest-free credit lines.

Department store sales ascended by 26%, Clothing sales rose 11%, groceries sales rose 0.7% and other merchandise sales reported an increase of 10% as compared to December 2008

Gross domestic product (GDP) started to recover from the second half of 2009 and expanded 2.9% in the third quarter compared to second quarter.