Christmas shopping drives inflation up to 3%

Inflation. The food prices, which used to drive Uganda’s inflation up remained low. PHOTO BY EDGAR R. BATTE

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Connections. According to Uganda Bureau of Statistics, annual inflation for clothing and foot wear increased to 4.7 per cent for year ending November 2019.

Uganda’s annual headline inflation rate has increased to 3.0 per cent in the year ending November 2019 compared 2.5 per cent registered in the previous year following increased prices of clothes and footwear as the Christmas season draws near.
However, the increase in inflation still leaves the policymakers in Uganda in a comfortable place because it is still 2.3 percentage points below the policy target of 5 per cent.
Uganda Bureau of Statistics said on November 29 that the increase in annual headline inflation is attributed to the annual core inflation, which went up to 2.9 per cent. From 2.6 per cent registered in the previous year following the rise in prices of cloths and footwear that up have gone up due to Christmas season.
Releasing the Consumer Price Index for November at Statistics House last Friday, the director macroeconomic Statistics Uganda Bureau of Statistics, Ms Aliziki Kaudaha Lubega, said: “The driver for the increase in annual core inflation was annual other goods inflation that increased to 3.8 per cent for the year ending November 2019 compared to 3.4 per cent recorded for the year ended October 2019.”
“Annual inflation for clothing and foot wear increased to 4.7 per cent for year ending November 2019 compared 3.9 per cent recorded in October.”
Ms Aliziki said during the period the annual inflation for Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco increased to 2.1 per cent compared to 1.6 per cent recorded in the previous period.
She said the services inflation has been recorded at 1.5 per cent for the year ending November 2019, the same rate it was recorded in October 2019.
Ms Aliziki said the current movements in Uganda’s inflation are largely based on seasons, whereby people are already buying things a head of Christmas.