In May, headline inflation decreased to 3.3 percent from 3.4 percent in April. According to the latest data from Statistics Botswana, inflation decreased for: food and non-alcoholic beverages (from -0.1 to -0.5 percent); alcoholic beverages and tobacco (from 0.7 to 0.5 percent); furnishing, household equipment and routine maintenance (from 2.2 to 2.1 percent); transport (from 6.3 to 6.2 percent); communication (from 1.3 to 1.2 percent). However, this was partly offset by inflation increasing with respect to; housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels (from 3.3 to 3.4 percent); health (from 1.3 to 1.4 percent); and recreation and culture (from 2 to 2.1 percent).

Inflation remained unchanged for clothing and footwear (2.1 percent); education (5.5 percent); restaurants and hotels (3.6 percent); and miscellaneous goods and services (8.5 percent).

The trimmed mean measure of core inflation decreased from 3.1 to 3.0 percent, while inflation excluding administered prices decreased from 1.9 to 1.8 percent.