Soaring food prices push inflation up

This means prices of a general basket of goods and commodities have risen by an average of 7.7 percent from November 2006 to November 2007. The increase in November has all but thrown away any hopes that the Bank of Botswana had of achieving its 2007 annual inflation rate objective of between 4 percent and 7 percent as there is no more room for a downswing in the month of December due to persistent food price induced inflationary pressures.

In a statement, the central bank said the widening gap between the inflation rate and the upper limit of its inflation objective for 2007 of 4-7 percent was due principally to rising food prices.