In August, headline inflation decreased to 3 percent from 3.1 percent in July. According to the latest data from Statistics Botswana, inflation decreased for: food and non-alcoholic beverages (from -1.1 to -1.3 percent); clothing and footwear (from 2 to 1.7 percent); furnishing, household equipment and routine maintenance (from 2 to 1.9 percent); transport (from 7.7 to 7.5 percent); communication (from -8.2 to -8.3 percent); recreation and culture (from 2 to 1.9 percent); and restaurants and hotels (from 3.6 to 3.5 percent). However, this was partly offset by inflation increasing with respect to: alcoholic beverages and tobacco (from 0.8 to 0.9 percent) and housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels (from 3.5 to 3.6 percent). Inflation remained unchanged for: health (0.8 percent); education (5.4 percent); and miscellaneous goods and services (7.6 percent).

The trimmed mean measure of core inflation and inflation excluding administered prices fell from 3.1 to 3 percent and 1.7 to 1.6 percent, respectively.