Residents are spending less overseas and more in Bermuda, Government statistics revealed yesterday.

The Government yesterday announced that retail sales for August rose 7.8 percent above the level reached the same month last year.

And residents returning from trips overseas declared some $2.93 million in goods, a decrease of 5.2 percent year-over-year.

Gross revenue for August was estimated at $45.1 million and after a 2 percent inflation adjustment, the total volume of sales increased by 5.7 percent.

According to the Government, this was the highest gain since February 1996 and they pointed out that there were the same number of shopping days in the month as there were in August of last year.

For the year to date, retail sales were estimated at $338 million, a 3.2 percent increase over the $327.6 million recorded for the first eight months of last year. Adjusting for inflation, sales increased by 1.2 percent.

Thanks to an increase in car and bike sales, car dealers and the service station sector posted the greatest increase with sales rising by 15 percent.

Some car dealers partially attributed the increase to heavier advertising. A strong demand for clothing, footwear and household items helped the general stores category report a 12 percent increase in sales between this August and August of last year.

The Government attributed sales and an upswing in the construction industry for the increase in numbers posted by hardware stores during August.

And despite an almost 4 percent decline in visitor arrivals for August, visitor oriented stores also posted strong sales.

Food sales were up by 1.2 percent but liquor sales continued to decline -- 3.4 percent for the month of August.