In October, headline inflation increased to 3.6 percent from 2.9 percent in September. According to the latest data from Statistics Botswana, inflation increased for: alcoholic beverages and tobacco (from 0.8 to 1.1 percent); housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels (from 3.4 to 3.5 percent); and transport (from 7.3 to 11 percent - largely because of an increase in the rate of price increase for operation of personal transport due to the rise in retail pump price for petrol and diesel). However, this was partly offset by inflation easing with respect to: food and non-alcoholic beverages (from -0.9 to -1.1 percent; clothing and footwear (from 1.6 to 1.4 percent); furnishing, household equipment and routine maintenance (from 2.2 to 2 percent); recreation and culture (from 1.9 to 1.5 percent); restaurants and hotels (from 3.4 to 3.2 percent); and miscellaneous goods and services (from 7.4 to 6.8 percent). Inflation remained unchanged for: health (1 percent); communication (-9.1 percent); and education (5.4 percent).

The trimmed mean measure of core inflation increased from 2.9 to 3.7 percent, while inflation excluding administered prices remained unchanged at 1.6 percent.