16 Jan 2013

The month of December year on year inflation rate remained static at 7.4 per cent, same as in November 2012, the Central Statistics Office said in a data released on Wednesday.

The data released showed that inflation rate for the whole of the previous year was above the Bank of Botswana target range of 3-6 per cent. For the year under review, inflation rate was recorded at 8.8 per cent in January and lowered to the lowest rate of 6.6 per cent in August before picking up to the current figures.

However, economists have projected that the national year-on year inflation will subside to the central bank range this year, something which has eluded the country in the past years. In fact, the country recorded the lowest inflation rate figures when it was measured at 6.0 per cent in March 2010, before growing up to record the highest peak of 9.2 per cent in November and December 2011.

According to the Central Statistics Office, urban villages’ inflation rate registered an increase of 0.3 of a percentage point in December, whilst the rural villages gained 0.1 of a percentage point from the previous month. Furthermore, the data said the national consumer price index was 164.9, registering an increase of 0.3 per cent from the November index of 164.4.

The Central Statistics Office said the group indices were stable between November and December 2012, recording movements of less than 1.0 per cent.

For instance, the transport group index recorded an increase of 0.6 per cent from 168.2 in November to 169.2 in December due to an increase in the constituent section index of transport services.

The rise in transport service section index was mainly due to an increase in minibus and taxi fares from P3.30 to P3.50 and P3.90 to P4.10 respectively, while long distance bus fare increased from 20.41 thebe to 21.60 thebe per kilometre in bitumen roads. ENDS