10 Nov 2016

Deputy statistician general, Mr Dabilani Buthali, says index numbers are increasingly becoming important to planners as indicators of changing economic or business activity both in government and the corporate world.

When giving his remarks at the consumer price rebasing workshop a in Gaborone on Wednesday (November 9), Mr Buthali said the consumer price index was mainly used for adjusting wages and salaries in line with the rate of inflation, to enable wage earners to retain their purchasing power and maintain their standard of living.

He also said consumer index price is an important indicator for monitoring the effectiveness of inflation related policies, establishing real changes in the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and in adjusting payments in business and government contracts.

Mr Buthali highlighted that the consumer price index was to be rebased every five years to keep it abreast with changing household consumption patterns over time.

He also said Statistics Botswana is rebasing the consumer price index using the 2009 and 2010 Botswana Core Welfare Indicators Survey data and the current Botswana Consumer Price Index series had a base period of September 2006 which is being revised to a base period of September 2016.

He further said the rebasing of the consumer price index is a welcome development to stakeholders who had often expressed concern on the delay to rebase this important index.

Mr Buthali also said Statistics Botswana was committed to adhering to the UN methodologies and standards in compiling official statistics.

He stated that the new consumer basket with associated indices would help monetary policy authorities and other users to make sound policies connected to price movements in the country.

For his part, acting manager of National Accounts and Prices, Mr Phaladi Labobedi said Statistics Botswana is currently collecting prices manually by using questionnaire and prices collection is conducted every month within the first two weeks of the month and prices collection covers the towns/cities, urban villages and rural villages.

He added that a total of 49 areas will be covered in consumer price index prices collection compared to 46 in the previous consumer price index and each district is represented.

He also said new consumer price index rebased to September 2016 will be released this month November 2016 and rebasing of consumer price Index to September 2019 using the 2015/16 Botswana Multi-topic Household Survey (BMTHS). ENDS