Bad news for SA consumers as inflation ticks up

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There is bad news for consumers as price pressures increase with inflation ticking up by 0.6% in September.

Data that Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) has released shows that consumer price inflation increased from 4.8% in August to 5.4% in September 2023.

The main contributors to inflation came from transport, food and non-alcoholic beverages as well as miscellaneous goods and services.

Economist Annabel Bishop says major increases in the petrol price played a major role in the increase in inflation.

“This was partly due to base effects because of the fact that we obviously saw inflation falling a year ago but also, from the large fuel price we saw in the month of September which saw the petrol price rising by R1.71 per litre.  Looking forward, the South African Reserve Bank at the Monetary Policy Review said that the interest rate is at a sufficient level to bring inflation down next year, which implies that there shouldn’t be further interest rate hikes and we concur with that.  In fact, we believe that inflation will fall from above 5% to next year towards 4.6% as an average for the year.”

Meat and poultry prices

In a statement, Stats SA also recorded the following increases: 

• Meat prices increased on average by 0.6%, pushing the annual rate up to 3.8%,
• Poultry-related products saw an increase due to producers having to cull birds due to the outbreak of avian flu. Examples include fresh whole chicken (up 2.2%), fresh chicken portions (up 2.2%) and non-IQF chicken portions (up 1.9%),
• Egg prices registered a monthly increase of 0.3% following a decline of 0.4% in August.

Stats SA says prices for poultry-related products will need close and attentive monitoring due to the impact of avian flu, adding that the October CPI will provide an update on this.

The graphic below highlights some inflation stats: 

Mugflation alert! Coffee and tea prices jumped between August and September, for instant coffee (up 4,8%), ground coffee (up 4,6%) and rooibos tea (up 3,7%).

Read more here: https://t.co/oT12i4VgtO
#StatsSA #inflation pic.twitter.com/0sV1hviSNN

— Stats SA (@StatsSA) October 18, 2023