Food sales in Israel took a positive turn during August 2002, against all forecasts. Food sales were up 3.5%  after a decline of 4% in the last three months, according to data released by the Central Bureau of Statistics and reported in Maariv. The report notes however that food sales in 2002 were extremely low following the continuous rise in food sales in recent years. The report notes that since June 2001 there has been a 3% decline in food sales, after a sharp rise of 13.5% in sales of food in the supermarkets from the beginning of 2000 until mid 2001.