In May, headline inflation increased to 3.5 percent from 3.4 percent in April. According to the latest data from Statistics Botswana, inflation increased for: food and non-alcoholic beverages (from 3.8 to 4.1 percent); alcoholic beverages and tobacco (from 4.8 to 5.2 percent); housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels (from 6.7 to 6.8 percent); furnishing, household equipment and routine maintenance (from 3.6 to 3.7 percent); transport (from 1.5 to 1.7 percent); communication (from 0.1 to 0.2 percent); restaurants and hotels (from 3.6 to 3.7 percent); and miscellaneous goods and services (from 1.9 to 2.0 percent).  However, this was partly offset by inflation easing with respect to: clothing and footwear (from 3.4 to 3.3 percent); health (from 3.3 to 1.3 percent – mainly due to a decline in the rate of price increase for hospital services) and recreation and culture (from 2.4 to 2.3 percent). Inflation remained unchanged for education (4.1 percent).

The trimmed mean measure of core inflation remained unchanged at 3.1 percent, while inflation excluding administered prices increased from 3.3 to 3.4 percent.