In May, headline inflation as measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI) declined by a further 1.8 percentage points to 8.4 percent, from 10.2 percent in April. There were downward movements in inflation across almost all commodity groups, with significant falls in food and non-alcoholic beverages (from 20.1 percent to 18 percent), clothing and footwear (from 9.2 percent to 8.1 percent), housing, electricity and water (5.7 percent to 4.1 percent), and transport (from -9.2 percent to -12.8 percent). Marginal declines were registered in other categories, with the exception of health, where inflation remained unchanged at 5.1 percent, and recreation and culture, which rose from 2.6 percent to 4.3 percent.
The trimmed mean measure of core inflation was 8.7 percent in May, a fall of 1.2 percentage points from 9.9 percent in April. Excluding administered prices, inflation registered a decrease of 1.0 percentage point from 15.5 percent to 14.5 percent. While inflation remains above the Bank of Botswana’s inflation objective range of 3-6 percent, it has nevertheless fallen to single digits, reflecting easing pressure on prices across a broad range of goods and services. Going forward, however, if recent upward pressure on oil prices continues there may be some slowing of the current downward trend for inflation.