According to Statistics Botswana, headline inflation decreased from 1.5 percent in July 2023 to 1.2 percent in August 2023, remaining below the lower bound of the Bank’s medium-term objective range of 3 – 6 percent, and was significantly lower than the 14.6 percent in August 2022. The decrease in inflation between July and August 2023 was mainly due to the deceleration in the rate of annual price change for the “Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages and ‘communication’ categories. Meanwhile, there were partially offsetting movements in the annual price changes for some categories of goods and services, while for the ‘Health’ and ‘Education’ categories prices were unchanged at 2.7 percent and 5.1 percent, respectively. Inflation fell with respect to: Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages (from 10.7 to 9.0 percent); Communication (from 2.4 to 1.3 percent); Miscellaneous Goods & Services (from 8.5 to 8.2 percent), and Transport (from -7.6 to -7.8 percent). The downward pressure on inflation was slightly offset by inflation increasing with respect to: Recreation and Culture (from 1.9 to 2 percent); Clothing and Footwear (from 5.6 to 5.7 percent); Restaurants and Hotels (from 5.8 to 6.0 percent); Furnishing, Household Equipment and Routine Maintenance (from 5.3 to 5.6 percent); Housing, Water, Electricity, Gas and Other Fuels (from 0.9 to 1.2 percent); and Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco (from 5.1 to 5.4 percent).
Similarly, the 16 percent trimmed mean inflation and inflation excluding administered prices decreased from 2.5 percent and 5.9 percent to 2.4 percent and 5.5 percent, respectively, in the same period.