Inflation decreases to 8.8 percent in August

16 Sep 2021

According to Statistics Botswana, headline inflation declined marginally from 8.9 percent in July to 8.8 percent in August 2021, remaining above the upper bound of the Bank's medium-term objective range of 3 - 6 percent, and significantly higher than the 1 percent in August 2020. The slight decline in inflation between July and August 2021 mainly reflects partially offsetting movements in annual price changes for some categories of goods and services, while for the rest, the annual price movements were unchanged. Inflation decreased for: Transport (from 20.9 to 20.6 percent); Housing, Water, Electricity, Gas and Other Fuels (from 8.4 to 8.2 percent); Communication (from 1.7to 1.5 percent); Food and Non-alcoholic Beverages (from 6.5 to 6.4 percent); and Recreation and Culture (from 4.4 to 4.3 percent). However, the downward pressure on inflation was partly offset by inflation increasing with respect to: Restaurants and Hotels (from 3.3 to 3.7 percent); Miscellaneous Goods and Services (from 6.6 to 7 percent); and Clothing and Footwear (from 3.5 to 3.6 percent). Inflation remained unchanged for: Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco (8.2 percent); Furnishing, Household Equipment and Routine Maintenance (4.3 percent); Health (2.7 percent); and Education (1.8 percent).

The 16 percent trimmed mean inflation and inflation excluding administered prices decreased from 8.4 percent and 7 percent to 8.3 percent and 6.8 percent, respectively, in the same period.