According to Statistics Botswana, headline inflation fell from 5.7 percent in May to 4.6 percent in June 2023, remaining within the Bank’s medium-term objective range of 3 – 6 percent, and was lower than the 12.7 percent in June 2022. The decrease in inflation between May and June 2023 was mainly due to the base effects associated with the upward adjustment of public transport fares in June 2022, which added 0.77 percentage points to headline inflation and the restrained growth in the prices of food and non-alcoholic beverages. Meanwhile, there were partially offsetting movements in the annual price changes for other categories of goods and services, while for the ‘Communication’ and ‘Education’ categories, prices were unchanged at 2.5 percent and 5.1 percent, respectively. Inflation fell with respect to: Transport (from 4.2 to 1.3 percent); Food and Non-Alcoholic beverages (from 14.3 to 12.9 percent); Furnishing, Household Equipment and Routine Maintenance (from 6.6 to 5.6 percent); Miscellaneous Goods & Services (from 9.5 to 8.7 percent), Clothing and Footwear (from 5.8 to 5.6 percent); Health (from 3.8 to 3.6 percent); Recreation and Culture (from 2.1 to 1.9 percent) and Housing, Water, Electricity, Gas and Other Fuels (from 1.4 to 1.3 percent). The downward pressure on inflation was partly offset by inflation increasing with respect to: Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco (from 4.7 to 4.8 percent); and Restaurants and Hotels (from 6.4 to 6.5 percent).
Similarly, the 16 percent trimmed mean inflation and inflation excluding administered prices decreased from 5.4 percent and 7.7 percent to 4.3 percent and 7.1 percent, respectively, in the same period.