Brazilian supermarket sales continued to top last year's figures in June, leading to increased optimism for year-end growth by the Brazilian Supermarkets Association.

Supermarket sales in June increased 4.83% in real terms compared with June 2008, the Abras trade group said Wednesday. The strong results caused Abras to raise its forecast for sales growth in 2009.

Abras boosted its outlook for annual sales to a 4.5% increase in 2009 versus 2008, up from a previous forecast for 2.5% growth. In the first six months of 2009, supermarket sales advanced 5.27% compared with the first half of 2008, Abras said.

June sales, however, slipped 5.59% from May, marking the second consecutive month-on-month decline, Abras said. That could signal that consumers were reining in spending as Brazil's economy continues to rebound from the global slowdown.

The country's retail sector has proved remarkably resilient to the wider slowdown in the Brazilian economy over the past 10 months, reflecting an increase in spending power of the average Brazilian amid rising salaries and falling interest rates.

Consumer access to credit continued to expand in June, while interest rates maintained a downward trend, according to the latest figures from the Brazilian Central Bank.

Total available credit in Brazil, including government-directed and non-directed credit rose 1.3% to 1.28 trillion reals ($679 billion) in June, or the equivalent of 43.7% of gross domestic product. Compared to June 2008, total credit supply in Brazil expanded 19.7%.

The central bank has embarked on an aggressive rate-cutting cycle since January in an effort to ward off the impact of the global economic slowdown on Latin America's largest economy. Last week, the bank slashed its benchmark Selic base interest rate by 50 basis points to 8.75%, the lowest level since the reference rate's inception in 1999.

Lower interest rates and a benign inflation outlook will likely give consumers even greater purchasing power over the remainder of 2009, economists said.

Sales figures in real terms take into account inflation as measured by the government's official consumer price index, or IPCA. In June, the IPCA gained 0.36%. The rolling 12-month IPCA inflation rate through June reached 4.8%, down from the 5.2% registered in the 12 months through May.

Economists and analysts expect Brazil's inflation to continue to ease in coming months, ending the year below the government's official target of 4.5%.

Brazil's largest grocers are Companhia Brasiliera de Distribuicao (CBD), or CBD, France's Carrefour SA (12017.FR) and U.S. retail titan Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT). French retailer Casino Guichard Perrachon SA (12558.FR) owns a 34.3% stake in CBD.

-By Jeff Fick, Dow Jones Newswires; 55-21-2586-6085; Jeff.Fick@dowjones.com