In April, headline inflation fell to 2.8 percent from 3.0 percent in March. According to the latest data from Statistics Botswana, inflation fell for several commodity groups, including: housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels (from 10.5 to 6.6 percent largely due to a fall in the rate of price increase for the “water supply and miscellaneous services” sub-group); furnishing, household equipment and routine maintenance (from 3.2 to 3.1 percent); and recreation and culture (from 6.7 to 2.0 percent, as inflation for the “recreational and cultural services” sub-group fell significantly). However, this was partly offset by rising inflation for: food and non-alcoholic beverages (from 1.9 to 2.7 percent); alcoholic beverages and tobacco (from 2.0 to 2.1 percent); clothing and footwear (from 7.2 to 7.3 percent); health (from 3.4 to 3.6 percent); education (from 3.7 to 3.8 percent); restaurants and hotels (from 4.2 to 4.3 percent); and miscellaneous goods and services (from 7.2 to 7.6 percent). Inflation was unchanged for: transport (-3.2 percent) and communication (0.5 percent).

The trimmed mean measure of core inflation fell from 2.5 to 2.4 percent, while inflation excluding administered prices increased from 3.7 to 3.9 percent.