| Botswana Inflation rises again in April |
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| Tuesday,May 27,2008 Posted: 17:19 BJT(0919 GMT) |
| From:BoB Article type:Reproduced |
In April, headline inflation, as measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI), was 11.1 percent, up 1.3 percent from 9.8 percent in March. While this was the steepest monthly increase since headline inflation commenced on an upward path in October 2007, it was principally due to large price increases in two areas. Rising inflation (from 5.1 percent to 6.6 percent) in the costs of housing, water and fuels was entirely due to the increase from 5.5 percent to 13.4 percent in the annual rate of increase in the price index for electricity, gas and other fuels; in turn this was driven by the rise in electricity tariffs at the beginning of the month. Inflation in transport costs rose from 14.9 percent to 21.5 percent, due mainly to the operation of personal transport component of this group, following further increases in petrol and diesel prices. Other commodity groups that recorded rises in inflation include food and non-alcoholic beverages (from 18.0 percent to 18.4 percent) and health (from 14.4 percent to 16.0 percent). However, inflation declined in several other areas, including alcoholic beverages and tobacco (from 8.8 percent to 7.3 percent), furnishing, household equipment and routine maintenance (from 3.6 percent to 2.5 percent), restaurants and hotels (from 13.1 percent to 12.2 percent) and recreation and culture (4.1 percent to 0.7 percent). Inflation for clothing and footw ear, and communication remained negative. By tradeability, inflation rose for both tradeable and non-tradeable goods and services, from 12.0 percent to 13.6 percent and from 4.8 percent to 5.7 percent, respectively. However, within the tradeables category, there was a distinction between goods and services that are mainly imported, where inflation rose from 10.2 percent to 13.4 percent, and those where there is substantial proportion of domestic production, for which inflation fell from 15.5 percent to 14.1 percent. |
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