figures released yesterday showed.

And in a worrying trend for Bermuda's shops retail sales on the Island inched up by just 0.3 percent in the same time period, after taking inflation into account.

Department stores and other shops catering to the tourist market particularly suffered, the statistics from the Ministry of Finance revealed.

Earlier this year the Government said it was considering cutting some steep duties to relieve the woes of such shops in order to boost flagging sales to tourists and at the same time curb locals spending their pay-cheques abroad.

But no such move has occurred and yesterday's statistics did not reveal any improvement in the situation.

Inflation for the 12 months to June was 2.4 percent. Before taking it into account the total value of retail sales in Bermuda increased by 2.7 percent.

Gross turnover in the whole retail sector was estimated at $51.5 million during the 25 shopping days of June.

In contrast as locals returned from abroad they declared $2.29 million of purchases to customs officials for the month.

This figure does not take into account the goods which every month are snuck past custom inspectors without being declared.

Food stores fared well in the local sales stakes, posting a 9.8 percent gain in sales on June last year. And some of these stores cited a continuing trend of increased sales.

Liquor sales were also up, exceeding last June's purchases by 2.4 percent.

General shops posted an overall gain of 1.5 percent but individual stores had mixed results.