Bermuda's economy grew strongly in 2005 with international business and construction leading the way, figures from the Quarterly Bulletin of Statistics show.

Employment income for international business jumped 8.6 percent from $502 million in 2004 to $545 million in 2005, while the construction industry saw the biggest percentage increase, rising 12.4 percent to $159 million from $142 million in 2004.

Overall, employment income rose by six percent in 2005 to $2.34 billion from $2.21 billion in the previous year.

Tourism also showed some signs of a rebound, increasing 6.9 percent to $140 million from $131 million in 2004, the highest increase in at least the last four years.

The rise in employment income for construction was reflected in the increase in construction work in 2005.

Although figures were not available for the fourth quarter of 2005, $275.6 million worth of work was put in place in the nine months to September 30, 2005, compared to $174.6 million in the same period in 2004, a 57.8 percent increase.

In fact, more work was put in place in the first nine months of 2005 than in the whole of 2004, when $231.3 million worth of work was done.

The leading source of construction work was in the commercial sector, with work on offices, shops and warehouses accounting for $80.9 million, while construction on hotels and guest houses was worth $75.7 million.

However, there were signs that the construction sector might see some cooling off in the future, because the value of new projects started in the first nine months was put at just $51.9 million, a 61.5 percent decrease from the $181.7 million worth of work begun in the same period in 2004. For the whole of 2004, $285.9 million worth of new projects were started.

Surprisingly given the strength of the economy, provisional figures for imports showed a slight decline, falling from to $963.9 million in 2005 from $969.1 million in 2004.

The largest decline came in machinery, off more than $35 million to $148.2 million, but fuels also dropped by almost $27 million to $78.4 million while chemicals dropped by $25 million to $83 million.

Also falling were basic and semi-manufactured materials, down $8 million to $136 million.

Those decreases offset rises in food, clothing, transport equipment (up $32 million to $96 million) and finished equipment, which was up $43 million to $188 million.

2005 recorded a decline in the number of imports from the Caribbean showing a total of $15,639 million dollars, compared to $51,997 million in 2004, a reduction of $36.3 million from 2004. US imports still far exceeded all other imports to Bermuda with $717.7 million in 2005.

The total number of new businesses incorporated in Bermuda was 1,368 in 2005 compared to 1,397 in 2004, a slight decline of 29 registrations.

The total of number of registered companies at the close of the fourth quarter of 2005 was 16,938 compared to 16,533 in 2004, representing an increase of 405 registrations.

Total tourism arrivals for 2005 rose by 8.3 percent to 517,196 in 2005, but all of the increase came from cruise passengers, whose arrivals jumped 20.1 percent to a record 247,609.

Air arrivals, who generally contribute more to the economy, slipped 0.7 percent to 269,621.

However, visitor spending rose 8.3 percent for the year as cruise and air passengers spent an estimated $392 million.

Although, the number of air visitors fell, spending rose 5.7 percent from $309.7 million to $327.6 million, with expenditure on accommodation and food jumping 29 percent or $46 million to $202 million.

That was offset by a slump in spending on shopping, entertainment and transport, which fell $28.1 million or 18 percent to $125.6 million.