The Research Annual Trade - CAP aims to describe the basic structural characteristics of the business segment of the wholesale and retail shops in the country and its changes over time.

The series of the CAP began in 1988 with the goal of providing annual information on the sector of trade in between census periods. From the year 1996, the CAP was appropriate to the parameters of the new model of industrial production of statistics, trade and services, in which the five yearly economic censuses have been replaced by annual sample surveys. The Central Registry of Companies-CEMPRE, systematically updated, is the common reference for businesses.

The structural design of the research takes into account the annual concentration of productive activity in those segments of larger, census giving treatment to companies with 20 or more people employed in the registration of basic selection. The other companies are subject to selection probability.

The CAP, in its new format, is the central structural search of the subsystem of Commerce statistics.

Custodian: Statistics Brazil