| Botswana's Inflation Rises further in December |
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| Thursday,January 24,2008 Posted: 18:03 BJT(03 GMT) |
| From:BoB Article type:Reproduced |
In December, 2007, headline inflation, as measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI), registered a further 0.4 percent rise, to 8.1 percent from 7.7 percent in November. This further widened the gap between the inflation rate and the upper end of the inflation objective for 2007 of 4–7 percent set by the Bank of Botswana.
The increase was due principally to continued upward pressure on food prices (for which inflation was 15.6 percent compared 14.9 percent in November), together with a substantial increase in inflation for transport (from 8.1 percent to 10.1 percent) following an increase in fuel prices in early December. Across other commodity groups, inflationary pressures were less pronounced. Significant declines were recorded for housing, water and fuels (from 5.3 to 4.1 percent), furnishing, household equipment and maintenance (5.6 to 3.5 percent), health (12.8 to 11.0 percent) and restaurants and hotels (14.5 to 13.9 percent). Inflation in several other categories remained negative, despite upward movements.
Inflation for tradeable goods and services went up by 1.2 percent to 10.3 percent from 9.1 percent; while, for non-tradeables, inflation fell significantly from 4.7 percent to 3.4 percent.
In contrast to the headline measure, the two measures of core inflation did not increase in December. The trimmed mean fell by 0.3 percent from 7.7 percent in November to 7.4 percent while, when excluding administered prices, inflation remained unchanged, at 7.1 percent.
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