27 August 2026
Botswana’s central bank kept its monetary policy rate unchanged for a second consecutive meeting on Thursday, saying it needed to carefully assess second-round inflationary effects from higher domestic fuel prices and electricity tariffs.
- Annual inflation in the Southern African country stood at 9.4% year-on-year in July, down from 10.7% in June, but remained well above the central bank’s 3% to 6% medium-term target range.
- Governor Lesego Moseki told a press conference inflation was expected to remain above the target range until the first quarter of 2027, adding that continued vigilance and careful management of inflation expectations were necessary to ensure a return to range.
- Botswana’s economy has also been hit hard by a prolonged downturn in the global diamond market, with successive gross domestic product contractions in the past two years.
- The central bank lowered its average inflation forecast for 2026 to 7.9% from 9.0% projected in June, and it expects inflation to slow to 4.9% in 2027 compared with an earlier forecast of 5.5%.
Source: https://shorturl.at/HFcia
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