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Botswana’s inflation rate rose to 3 percent year-on-year in February, from 2.7 percent reported in January, according a report released by the Statistics Botswana on Tuesday.

The statistics agency said inflation in February 2016 was higher than the 2.8 percent recorded during the same month in 2015.

Last month the Bank of Botswana left its benchmark interest rate unchanged at 6 percent, stating that the country’s inflation rate looks set to remain within its target range of 3-6 percent.

“The acceleration of the annual inflation rate between February 2015 and February 2016 was mainly due to the increase in prices of commodities in the housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels index group,” Statistics Botswana said.

Food inflation rose 0.6 percent month-on-month in February, mainly because of a general increase in all categories, except vegetables.

The consumer price indices for Botswana’s regions show that rural villages’ index rose to 3.1 percent from 2.8 percent recorded in the previous month. The cities and towns index rose to 2.9 percent in February from 2.7 percent in the previous month while the urban villages’ index rose to 3.2 percent in February from 2.6 percent reported in the previous month.

Botswana’s GDP grew by 1.2 percent in 12 months to September 2015, compared to 4.1 percent in a similar period in 2014. The slowdown in economic growth reflected the contraction in mining production, which declined by 11.8 percent in 2015. However, non-mining output rose 3.7 percent in 2015.

Botswana exports mostly diamonds (over 60 percent of total exports), copper and nickel, beef and textiles. Botswana's main export partners are United Kingdom (56 percent of total exports), South Africa, Israel, and Belgium.