In May, headline inflation as measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose from 7.1 percent to 7.8 percent. This further increase brings inflation to 1.8 percentage points above the upper end of the Bank of Botswana’s medium-term objective range of 3 – 6 percent. Commodity groups where inflation accelerated included food and non-alcoholic beverages (from 3.8 percent to 4.6 percent), alcoholic beverages and tobacco (from 6.7 percent to 8.1 percent) housing, water and electricity (from 4.6 percent to 8.5 percent), health (from 2.9 percent to 3.1 percent), communication (from 0.7 percent to 0.8 percent), restaurants and hotels (from 9.3 percent to 9.4 percent) and miscellaneous goods and services (from 8.3 percent to 8.4 percent). The substantial rise in the housing category reflected the increase in domestic electricity tariffs of between 15 percent and 30 percent that was introduced in May 1. However, the overall picture was mixed with partially offsetting declines in several other categories, including clothing and footwear (from 8.2 percent to 7.8 percent), furnishing, household equipment and maintenance (from 9.4 percent to 9.2 percent), transport (13.9 percent to 13.6 percent), and recreation and culture (from 5.8 percent to 4.5 percent).

The trimmed mean measure of core inflation was 8.3 percent in May, up by 0.6 percentage points from 7.7 percent in April. Core inflation excluding administered prices increased from 6.8 percent to 7.2 percent.