Botswana’s consumer inflation steadied in November ahead of the Christmas period, Statistics Botswana said this week.
The statistics office said the national year-on-year inflation rate stood at 7.2 percent, the same rate as in October 2010.
This was contrary to the trend of recent months where inflation rose by 0.2 percentage points to 7.2 percent from 7.0 percent in September with the numbers increasing across the commodity groups.
“All group indices showed stable movement with changes of less than one percent between October and November,” the CSO which will be Statistics Botswana said.
There was modest growth in clothing & footwear (0.9 percent), restaurants & hotels (0.8 percent), furnishing, household, equipment and maintenance (0.6 percent), alcoholic beverages, tobacco & narcotics (0.4 percent) and food & non alcoholic beverages (0.3 percent).
On the other hand, the clothing and footwear group index recorded an increase of 0.9 percent, moving from 126.3 in October to 127.4 in November.
“This was due to the increase in the constituent section indices of, clothing (1.9 percent) and cleaning, repair & hire (1.1 percent),” CSO said.
The restaurants & hotels group index went up by 0.8 percent; from 170.6 in October to 171.8 in November.
One analyst said on Friday that looking ahead, the expectation is to see the December rate rising marginally following the 10 basis points rise in the alcohol levy which, was effected on the 1st of December.
“This, however, is expected to be dampened by generally stable food and clothing & footwear prices as most retailers reduce their prices to boost sales ahead of the festive season,” said Gary Guma, an analyst at Motswedi Securities.
“Going into 2011, we expect inflation to remain between 6.5 percent and 8 percent up to the end of Q1 2011 before falling within the Bank of Botswana’s 3 percent to 6 percent objective range during Q2 2011, assuming there are no oil price shocks on the international market or changes in administered prices on the local market,” he added.
CSO said cities and towns’ inflation rate went up by 0.2 of a percentage point from 8.0 percent in October to 8.2 percent in November.
The urban villages’ inflation rate was 6.7 percent, down from the October rate of 6.8
percent by 0.1 of a percentage point. The rural villages’ inflation rate registered a decrease of 0.5 of a percentage point, from 5.9 percent in October to 5.4 percent in November.
The November national Consumer Price Index was 140.1, up by 0.3 percent on the October index of 139.7.
The cities and towns’ index moved from 138.8 to 139.5 between October and November, registering an increase of 0.5 percent. The urban villages’ index went up by 0.1 percent, from 139.1 to 139.3.
The rural villages’ index went up from 143.0 in October to 143.2 in November, recording an increase of 0.1 percent.
