Headline inflation increased from 3.7 percent in July to 3.9 percent in August 2024, remaining within the medium-term objective range of 3 – 6 percent and significantly higher than the 1.2 percent in August 2023. The increase in inflation between July and August 2024 was mainly due to the acceleration in the rate of annual price changes of some categories of goods and services, including Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages and Transport. Inflation for domestic tradeables increased from 3.7 percent to 4.1 percent between July and August 2024, due to a broad-based increase in food prices mainly due to the depreciation of the Pula against the South African rand and supply shortages because of drought-induced poor harvest and limited domestic production of vegetables amid the import ban. Similarly, imported tradeables inflation increased from 4.9 percent to 5.2 percent in the same period, due to an increase in vehicle prices on account of the depreciation of the Pula against the South African rand. As a result, all tradeables inflation increased from 4.6 percent to 4.9 percent between July and August 2024. Inflation for non-tradeables remained constant at 2.5 in the same period.
Similarly, the 16 percent trimmed mean inflation and inflation excluding administered prices increased from 3.5 percent and 2.9 percent to 3.7 percent and 3.2 percent, respectively, between July and August 2024.