Retail Sales Decreased 3.7% In March 2025
After adjusting for inflation, the overall volume of retail sales decreased 3.7% in March 2025 compared to March 2024, according to the newly released Retail Sales Index.
A Government spokesperson said, “Today, the Ministry of Economy and Labour released the March 2025 Retail Sales Index publication. March’s volume of retail sales index decreased 3.7 per cent compared to last year. In value terms, retail sales decreased to an estimated $94.9 million.
“Three of the seven sectors recorded year-over-year volume index decreases in March 2025:
- Food Stores’ sales volume decreased 5.0 per cent.
- The sales volume for Liquor Stores fell 6.9 per cent.
- The sales volume at Apparel Stores decreased 1.1 per cent.
“The following four sectors had increases in sales volume compared to the previous year:
- Motor Vehicle Stores’ sales volume rose 5.9 per cent.
- Service Stations’ sales volume rose 2.2 per cent.
- The sales volume for Building Material Stores increased 1.5 per cent.
- Sales volume increased 1.5 per cent in the All-Other Store Types sector [comprising stores selling household items, furniture, appliances, electronics, pharmaceuticals and tourist-related goods].
“Selected overseas declarations increased 24.5 per cent compared to March 2024.
“The public can review the March 2025 Retail Sales Index report at https://www.gov.bm/retail-sales-index-rsi.”
The full March 2025 Retail Sales Index publication follows below [PDF here]:
The mere fact that there are no comments about this is deafening! People are now officially desensitized to news that retail sales are down, tourism is down, crime is up, national debt it is climbing so much so that it is no longer news and don’t bother commenting anymore. Its the new norm!
People are too busy packing to move elsewhere, they don’t have time to be concerned.
Those are very nice statistics, but where is the explanation as to why “retail sales decreased 3.7% in March 2025 compared to March 2024″?
If the PLP Government cannot identify the reason for the decline it cannot take measures to address that reason.