economists.

Apart from car showrooms and service stations, which are back to near-normal business, retailers are still doing worse than last year.

The continuing bad news comes from the latest Government figures on retail sales, released this week.

The retail sales index, which measures how much Bermudians are buying, shows the value of sales in August this year was down 1.3 percent on August last year.

"The broad mix of store types catering to both local and tourist demand continued to experience lacklustre sales performances,'' said a statistical department spokesperson.

Meanwhile, Bermudians continued to take their cash overseas. Residents travelling abroad spent 20.5 percent more overseas this August than they did in August 1991, reflecting a 14.8 percent yearly increase in overseas trips.