During the last month the prices of paper and envelopes have echoed the trend since September 2005. As a result prices are almost 15% lower than this time last year. (Based on last year’s prices.) But this is not the whole picture…
Since the producer price index gained about 6.5% over the period, the real decrease in cost is in the reason of 21.5%. As we know suppliers use the Rand/Dollar exchange rate to increase their prices. But they don’t offer to reduce prices when the rate turns in their favour. Although there are many factors that drive these prices, one could argue that since the rand has strengthened even more over this period, that there might still be scope for negotiation.
Envelopes and paper only form a part of the overall Stationery picture. The graph below indicates what happened with stationery as a whole over the period.
The indices compiled by Purchasing Index (PI) from all the items in each spend category that clients purchase. As such they show the accurate increase or decrease of each spend category over time and here we have compared the resulting “All User Index” against the PPI and the Rand/Dollar exchange rate. This information is available on a subscription basis. For more information, follow this link
Compared to February last year, the average price for the overall stationery basket is about 7% lower. Add the rise in producer price index to this and a real reduction of 13.5% occurred during the period.
