Botswana's annual inflation rate remains above the central bank's short to medium-term target of 3 to 6 percent, the southern African country's statistical agency, Statistics Botswana, announced Thursday.

The annual inflation rate rose to 14.6 percent in August 2022, an increase of 0.3 percentage points from July's 14.3 percent, Statistician General Burton Mguni said.

Major components in the Consumer Price Index (CPI) basket, particularly transport (9.3 percent), food and non-alcoholic beverages (1.9 percent), housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels (1.1 percent), and miscellaneous goods and services (0.9 percent) were main contributors to the annual inflation rate, Mguni said.

Mguni said two group indices recorded changes of at least 1.0 percent between July and August 2022, namely, food and non-alcoholic beverages (1.4 percent) and communication (1.1 percent).

As the combination of base effects and higher food, transport, and utility costs continue to drive inflation, the Bank of Botswana (BoB) believes the inflation will only revert to the reserve bank's target by the last quarter of 2022.

BoB Governor Moses Pelaelo told journalists that countermeasures introduced to tackle rising inflation will start to work in two or three months.

Early last month, Botswana's Minister of Finance and Economic Development Peggy Serame announced a series of measures aimed at cushioning households from the impact of the challenging economic situation including a reduction of value-added tax from 14 percent to 12 percent.