In March, headline inflation remained at 3.3 percent as recorded in February. According to the latest data from Statistics Botswana, inflation decreased for: clothing and footwear (from 1.5 to 1.3 percent); housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels (from 3.3 to 3.2 percent); furnishing, household equipment and routine maintenance (from 2 to 1.6 percent); recreation and culture (from 1.2 to 1 percent); and miscellaneous goods and services (from 6.2 to 5.7 percent). However, this was partly offset by inflation increasing with respect to: food and non-alcoholic beverages (from -0.2 to 0.1 percent); alcoholic beverages and tobacco (from 0.4 to 0.6 percent); and restaurants and hotels (from 2.4 to 2.8 percent). Inflation remained unchanged for: health (1.1 percent); transport (9.9 percent); communication (-9.3 percent); and education (3.2 percent).
The trimmed mean measure of core inflation and inflation excluding administered prices remained unchanged at 3.5 and 1.6 percent, respectively.