The Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS) said Wednesday that the consumer price index numbers in the Palestinian Occupied Territories (OPT) for the base year (1996=100), reached 145.20 for March 2005, recording a 0.62% decreases compared with February 2005.

It added that through the analysis of the price changes of commodities, it is apparent that prices of the following major groups of expenditure have declined as follows: Food by 1.95% - Miscellaneous goods and services by 0.18% - Education by 0.09% - Medical care by 0.03% - Beverages and tobacco by 0.02%.

PCBS mentioned that prices of other following major groups of expenditure have increased as follows: Textiles, clothing and footwear by 0.53% - Furniture, household goods and services by 0.44% - Transport and communications by 0.37% - Housing by 0.10%.

PCBS concluded by saying that analyzing the price movements of different regions in OPT showed that the Prices of Remaining West Bank (The West Bank except for those parts of Jerusalem, which were annexed after 1967 occupation by Israel) have decreased by 1.52%, and the prices of Gaza Strip decreased by 0.53%, while the prices in Jerusalem increased by 0.09%.