GABORONE - Botswana's central bank raised its monetary policy rate by 50 basis points to 2.65% in a bid to tame inflation, Governor Moses Pelaelo said on Thursday.

Earlier this year, the Bank of Botswana switched to an interest rate based on a seven-day instrument instead of an annual rate called the Bank Rate.

The governor said the bank now expected inflation to fall within the bank's 3%-6% objective range in the third quarter of 2024.

At the last monetary policy committee meeting in June the bank expected it to fall within that range in the third quarter of 2023.

Botswana's annual inflation rate climbed to 14.3% in July from 12.7% in June.

(Reporting by Brian Benza; Writing by Bhargav Acharya; Editing by Alexander Winning)