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Inflation hits 12.7 percent for the month
Although prices of goods and services are already high, inflation continued to rise in July, reaching 14.3 percent for the month according to Statistics Botswana.
It represents a 1.6 percent increase from the 12.7 recorded in June.
The July blues were driven by rising fuel prices and transport costs, which have both increased significantly since the start of the year.
As a result, this has high impact on the weight of transport costs in the Consumer Price Index (CPI) basket.
It is expected inflation will remain on double digits for the rest of the year before easing slightly in 2023.
The continued rise in inflation comes after government made some interventions and temporary measures to alleviate the impact of higher inflation on citizens.
Some of the relief measures which government announced last month include: reduction of Value Added Tax (VAT) from 14 to 12 percent, additional loan funding to Botswana Meat Commission (BMC) to the tune of P120 million as well as listing cooking oil and liquid petroleum gas as zero-rated for VAT purposes for a six-month period.
Meanwhile, as for the regional inflation rates between June and July, the urban villages inflation rate went up from 12.4 to 14.2 percent.
The rural villages inflation rate rose from 13.1 to 14.8 percent, while the cities & towns inflation rate stood at 14.3 percent, a rise of 1.6 percentage points from the June rate of 12.7 percent.
