Car sales help retail sales increase

For the second time in three months there was a gain in the volume of the Retail Sales Index for Bermuda.

Is the end to the recession around the corner?

Bermuda College lecturer in Economics, Craig Simmons, has stated that there needs to be three consecutive months of economic growth in volume in the Retail Sales Index.

January’s growth was not much, just 0.3 per cent in the report released by the Department of Statistics, but it is an encouraging sign.

The value of growth was 1.1 per cent.

Overseas purchases declared by returning residents were down was 4.5 per cent.

Consumers spent an estimated $75.3 million on retail goods in January.

Leading the way were the sale of motor vehicles, which were up 20.6 per cent.

Receipts from food sales increased by 1.4 per cent while liquor stores reported a jump of 10.4 per cent. Food sales showed an increase because the price of food was up 2.0 per cent.

Sales for all other sectors were down.

Services station receipts were off 2.1 per cent, but that was due to the cost of fuel dropping by 3.5 per cent.

Sales revenue for the Apparel Stores fell 7.8 per cent. Retailers said there were fewer discounted items available in January 2014.

The Building Material sales were down 7.4 per cent compared to January 2013. With the hospital and Waterloo projects nearing their end,there was less demand for construction materials.

Retail Sales Index Report