Botswana’s year-on-year inflation continued its downward trend in July falling by 1.0 percent in line with expectations that the numbers will settle inside the Central Bank’s target range of between three and six percent.
The Central Statistics Office (CSO) data released on Wednesday showed that the inflation rate stood at 6.0 percent last month, down by 1.0 percentage point from 7.0 percent in June.
“Inflation is falling and that is good news. That is positive for the economy,” Dr Keith Jefferis, Chairman of Bifm Investment Committee said recently.
“That process will continue. We expect inflation to fall below 6 percent and settle in the range of 5 to 7 percent,” added the former Bank of Botswana (BoB) deputy governor.
The CSO stated that the city and towns’ inflation rate went down by 1.2 percentage points from 5.2 in June to 4.0 percent in July.
It added that the urban villages’ inflation rate was 6.3 percent, also down from the June rate of 7.3 percent by 1.0 percentage point.
The rural villages’ inflation rate registered a drop of 0.4 of a percentage point from 11.9 percent in June to 11.5 percent in July.
The July national Consumer Price Index was 129.4, registering an increase of 1.0 percent on the June index of 128.2.
The urban villages’ index went up by 1.1 percent from 128.0 to 129.4 between the two months while the rural villages’ index rose from 133.5 to 134.9, recording an increase of 1.1 percent.
The cities and towns’ index moved from 126.3 to 127.3 between June and July, an increase of 0.8 percent.
Five group indices recorded changes of more than 1.0 percent between June and July: Clothing and footwear,2.7 percent, recreation and culture,1.6, furnishing, household equipment and maintenance,1.4 percent, food and non-alcoholic beverages,1.4 and miscellaneous goods and services went up by 1.3 percent.
The clothing and footwear group index recorded an increase of 2.7 percent from 112.5 in June to 115.5 in July.
All constituent section indices recorded increases, other articles of clothing by 3.6 percent, footwear,2.6 percent, clothing,2.3 percent and cleaning, repair and hire at 0.3 percent.
The recreation and culture index group moved from 107.1 to 108.8, registering an increase of 1.6 percent between June and July.
The rise was largely due to an increase in the constituent section indices of audio visual, photographic and information processing equipment by3.0 percent and newspapers, books and stationary,2.2 percent.
The furnishing, household equipment and maintenance group index registered an increase of 1.4 percent from 125.6 to 127.4 between the two months. This was largely due to the rise in the constituent indices of glassware, tableware and household utensils,3.6 percent, household appliances,1.6 percent, furniture and furnishing,1.3 percent and household textiles,1.3 percent and goods and services for household maintenance,1.2 percent.
The food and non-alcoholic beverages index group moved from 149.4 to 151.5, registering an increase of 1.4 percent between June and July 2009. The rise was due to a general increase in the food prices.
All section indices recorded increases: Fruit,3.4 percent, food not elsewhere classified rose by 2.3 percent, and coffee, tea and cocoa,2.2 percent, vegetables,2.1 percent, sugar, jam, honey, chocolate and confectionary,2.0 percent with milk, cheese and other milk products,1.9 percent. Fresh, chilled and frozen meat went up by 1.1 percent and bread and cereals by 0.9 percent.
The miscellaneous goods and services group index moved from 111.5 to 112.9 between June and July, an increase of 1.3 percent.
This was a result of increases of 5.1, 2.0, 1.4 and 1.2 percent in the constituent section indices of taxes, licenses, fees, personal effects, personal care and financial services respectively.
The imported tradeables inflation rate recorded a drop of 2.1 percentage points from 0.4 percent in June to 1.7 percent in July.
The domestic tradeables inflation rate dropped from 18.0 percent in June to 17.6 percent in July. The non-tradeables inflation rate went up from 8.0 percent in June to 8.5 percent.
The all-tradeables inflation rate registered a decrease of 1.6 percentage points from 6.5 percent in June to 4.9 percent in July.
The imported tradeables index went up by 1.5 percent from 122.4 to 124.2 in the two months.
The domestic tradeables index was 149.6 in July, an increase of 0.7 percent over the June level of 148.6. The non- tradeables index rose by 0.5 percent from 120.9 in June to 121.5 in July.
The all-tradeables index increased by 1.2 percent – from 131.2 in June to 132.8 in July.
