Retailers in the service station industry were the only ones to experience a decline in sales last November, as fuel sales fell 1.5 percent.

According to figures released by the Department of Statistics yesterday, retail sales rose 5.3 percent in November compared to November, 2002.

After taing inflation into account, the volume of retail sales rose two percent.

The rise was in large part an effect of Hurricane Fabian, which hit the Island in September. Consumers were still buying paint and building materials to carry out repairs and restoration to their property damaged by the hurricane.

Their purchases boosted the building supply and hardware sector to rise a significant 17.5 percent above the level reached in November 2002.

Analysts at the Department of Statistics said the strong increase here also reflected “sub-performance sales levels experienced during the same month in 2002”.

Hurricane damage to vehicles impacted November sales with the motor vehicle sector posting a 10.6 percent jump over November 2002. This represented both sales of new vehicles and repairs to damaged ones.

There were mixed results in the apparel store sector as gross receipts rose 3.5 percent. And while the Chamber of Commerce's ‘Buy Bermuda' programme was heralded a success after Christmas, there was certainly a lot of money still spent overseas. Returning residents declared over $6 million worth of purchases in the month - a 29.5 percent increase over November 2002. But the Department of Statistics attributed the increase to delayed travel by residents, which the report says, shifted travel to November.

“The closure of the Bermuda International Airport in October to repair hurricane damage, resulted in the cancellation of several flights,” the report said.

Food store sales rose 3.2 percent and liquor sales inched up 0.3 percent. An estimated $45.3 million dollars worth of sales took place during the 24 shopping days in the month. That's $2.4 million over 2002 which had one less shopping day.