Car dealers and other retailers said data showing a surge in sales in July is by no means an indication that the industry is turning a corner in the Island’s economic crisis.“The market hasn’t bottomed out yet,” said Jonathan Brewin, president and CEO of HWP Group, which this week announced more layoffs at the company. “Sales have been steadily decreasing for the whole industry.”Mr Brewin told us yesterday that eight jobs had been cut at HWP due to a downturn in sales.“Sales are down 60 percent since 2006,” he said, pointing to industry-wide figures.Those figures show total vehicle sales at all dealers in Bermuda have plunged from 2,509 in 2005 to a projected 1,112 in 2012 — based on January to August sales to date.Government figures yesterday showed retail sales rose in nearly all sectors in July with motor vehicle dealers seeing the biggest increase, registering a 64.2 percent jump in sales receipts, the sector’s first increase since March 2010.And sales at building material stores rose seven percent above last July as stores reported higher demand in residential construction and renovation projects. Meanwhile, apparel sales were reported to have edged up 1.3 percent in July as “consumers took advantage of the many discount sales events” during the month.Overall for July, retail sales rose 6.2 percent or $5.5 million above the $89.8 million recorded in July 2011.However, Mr Brewin and other retailers said they continue to struggle.Mr Brewin added that the July spike in car sales was due to an unusual double shipment of cars to the Island, which automatically inflated numbers for the month even though many of the vehicles were presold.Richard Davidge of Prestige Auto, a Renault and Jeep dealer, pointed out the July figures were being compared to a bad year and also could arise from deep discounting by the auto industry to move inventory off the showroom floor.“If you have a look at 2011, sales were very poor that year,” he said. “And if you look at pricing, cars were being discounted heavily.”He said if you compare the figures to 2010, 2009 and prior years, sales were “way down from what the norm has been from 2000 to 2010”.Overall figures for the Bermuda auto market showed the number of vehicles sold dropped from 1,490 in 2010 to 1,121 in 2011.Indeed, the Government report noted motor vehicle retailers benefited from new inventory leading to a surge in unit sales of all vehicle types and the “increase also reflects a weak sales performance that occurred last July 2011. The number of cars and motorcycles sold rose by 39 units and 58 units, respectively.”In the building supplies sector, retailers we spoke to said sales overall were still down and expected to remain so.Some said the seven percent rise could be mostly from building supplies being purchased for the new hospital and major Waterloo House project in Hamilton.Baptiste Ltd owner Sacha Bearden said: “What we need is residential construction to start up again — those dollars get spread across the whole industry, not just one or two companies. With less renters, there is no demand for new construction. Plus with homeowners losing jobs, there won't be any renovations happening either. We can't expect an increase in residential construction material sales for years to come."In apparel sales, Gibbons Company CEO Paula Clarke, who is also chair of the Bermuda Chamber of Commerce’s retail division, said due to Cup Match falling in August there were actually two more shopping days in July, and not two less than July 2011, as the report stated.She said she was also “querying” some of the numbers submitted for the report.“We are not seeing an increase in sales, “ she said. “If there was any increase it was due to two extra trading days in July and definitely not an increase in volume. I wish we had better news.”Government’s monthly report said after adjusting for the annual retail sales rate of inflation, measured at 2.7 percent in July 2012, the volume of retail sales increased by 4.3 percent, the report said.It said consumer demand “strengthened in all retail sectors with the exception of Service Stations”. They recorded a decline in sales of 5.6 percent.Residents returning to the Island declared overseas purchases of goods valued at $5.2 million during July — nearly 2 percent or $100,000 less than the $5.3 million declared last July.Combined local and overseas spending totaled $100.5 million.Gross receipts for food stores increased five percent. Sales revenue for liquor stores edged up 2.4 percent during the month. These increases were attributed partly to the 4.5 percent and 2.1 percent rise in the average cost of food and alcohol, respectively.The all-other store types sector experienced a 3.8 percent rise in sales receipts during July 2012.During the same period, retail sales of furniture, appliances and electronics rose by 7.6 percent.Sales of pharmaceutical products increased by 4.6 percent. Boat and marine retailers recorded a fractional rise of 0.6 percent. In contrast, tourist-related stores saw their sales receipts drop by 5.8 percent....