In January 2018, headline inflation fell to 3.1 percent from 3.2 percent in December 2017. According to the latest data from Statistics Botswana, inflation fell for most commodity groups, including: food and non-alcoholic beverages (from 1.1 to 0.4 percent); alcoholic beverages and tobacco (from 3.4 to 2.4 percent); clothing and footwear (from 2.5 to 2.1 percent); furnishing, household equipment and routine maintenance (from 2.4 to 2.2 percent); health (from 1.9 to 1.4 percent); recreation and culture (from 2.1 to 1.9 percent); and restaurants and hotels (from 3.9 to 3.4 percent). However, this was partly offset by rising inflation for: transport (from 4.1 to 5 percent); education (from 4.2 to 5.5 percent); and miscellaneous goods and services (from 2.8 to 3 percent). Inflation was unchanged for: housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels (5.8 percent); and communication (1.2 percent).
The trimmed mean measure of core inflation and inflation excluding administered prices fell from 2.9 to 2.8 percent and 2.3 to 2.2 percent, respectively.