Changes in food prices during South Africa’s lockdown – here’s what you are paying more for

·24 Apr 2020

StatsSA has published new data highlighting the price changes for those essential goods that appear in the Consumer Price Index (CPI) basket.

The organisation said it is temporarily publishing inflation data on a weekly basis, albeit for a smaller range of goods.

Its data shows that the prices of essential products increased on average by 0.3% between the week ending 2 April (first week of lockdown) and the week ending 16 April (the third week of lockdown).

The second week of the lockdown saw the prices of essential items increase by 0.5% week-on-week, followed by a decrease of 0.2% week-on-week in the third week.

Food and non-alcoholic beverages (NAB) prices – which comprise almost 90% of the index – increased by 0.4% over the two weeks.

This is equivalent to the average monthly change in the CPI Food and NAB index over the past six months to March 2020, Stats SA said.

Some of the notable increases and decreases between 2- 16 April include:

Milk, eggs and cheese increased by 2.9%. This was mainly caused by a 19% increase in the prices of eggs;

Hot beverages increased by 2.7%. Increases of 2.8% for instant coffee and 7.2% for black tea pushed the hot beverages index higher. By comparison, Rooibos tea prices dropped by 4,8% over the three week period;

Oils and fats increased by 2.3%;

Average increases of 7.2% for beef mince and decreases of between 1.2% and 4.1% for chicken products resulted in a 0.7% aggregate increase for meat products;

The bread and cereals index increased by a cumulative 0.3%, with white and brown bread prices increasing by 1.9% and 1.8% respectively;

Fruit and vegetable prices – which are typically highly volatile – decreased by 9.6% and 2.9% respectively.

The miscellaneous products index, which comprises personal care products, was dragged lower mainly by large decreases in the indices for shampoo (‑7.2%), bath soap (‑4.6%) and tissues (‑2.5%).