Retail sales in March added up to 1.471 billion lei, an increase of 12.7% in real terms from the previous month and a 5.6% decrease from last March, Info-Prim Neo reports, quoting the National Bureau of Statistics. Over January-March this year, the population purchased consumer goods to the value of 4.189,1 billion lei, a 4.3% decline compared with the corresponding period last year following the 10.5% decrease in sales of nonfood products. According to the Bureau, the public, joint and private retail outlets reported reductions of 14.8%, 8.9% and, respectively, 8.8% in sales. At the same time, the sales at joint retail outlets (with foreign capital participation) and foreign outlets rose by 7.9%. The municipality of Chisinau accounted for 58.7% of all the retail sales, the municipality of Balti – for 8.3%, while the Autonomous Territorial Unit of Gagauzia – for 2.9%. The services provided to the population for payment by the officially registered units in March totaled about 1.043 billion lei, an increase of 1.3% in real terms from the previous month and of 0.8% from last March. The officially registered units during January-March this year provided paid services to the population to the value of 3.147 billion lei, a 0.1% increase in comparable prices compared with the same period of last year. The municipalities of Chisinau and Balti accounted for 46.6% and 5.8% respectively of the total services provided to the population for payment, while the Autonomous Territorial Unit of Gagauzia – for 3.3%.