According to Statistics Botswana, headline inflation increased from 3.5 percent in December 2023 to 3.9 percent in January 2024, remaining within the Bank’s medium-term objective range of 3 – 6 percent, and was significantly lower than the 9.3 percent in January 2023. The increase in inflation between December 2023 and January 2024 was mainly due to base effects associated with the downward adjustment of domestic fuel prices in January 2023. Meanwhile, there were partially offsetting movements in the annual price changes for some categories of goods and services, while for other categories, prices were unchanged. Inflation for domestic tradeables decreased from 4.8 percent to 4.5 percent between December 2023 and January 2024, due to a broad-based decrease in food prices. However, imported tradeables inflation increased from 3.5 percent to 4.7 percent, in the same period, mainly on account of base effects associated with the adjustment of domestic fuel prices. As a result, all tradeables inflation increased from 3.9 percent in December 2023 to 4.7 percent in January 2024. Meanwhile, inflation for non-tradeables declined from 3 percent to 2.8 percent in the same period.
Similarly, the 16 percent trimmed mean inflation increased from 3.3 percent to 3.7 percent, while inflation excluding administered prices declined from 4.4 percent to 4.1 percent, in the same period.