Botswana’s annual inflation rate for the month of July significantly dropped to 1.5 percent, compared to 4.6 percent in June, according to Statistics Botswana Tuesday.
The 3.1-percentage-point drop was attributed to the steady movement of indices, said Statistics Botswana, the data authority of the southern African country.
“The group indices were generally moving at a stable pace between June and July 2023, recording changes of less than 1.0 percent, except the transport group which recorded a decrease of 3.0 percent,” said Statistician General Burton Mguni.
“Inflation is expected to remain within the objective range in the next few months,” Finance Minister Peggy Serame also told parliament last week.
Serame applauded the central bank for keeping the monetary policy rate at 2.65 percent since August 2022, to cushion the economy and reflect the projected stable inflation outlook and consistent with the decline in price pressures.
Botswana last year suffered a high inflationary environment and inflation peaked at 14.6 percent in August 2022. And this year, headline inflation has been trending downwards, due to various factors such as low commodity and fuel prices.
