{"id":697745,"date":"2023-06-21T10:32:43","date_gmt":"2023-06-21T08:32:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=697745"},"modified":"2023-06-21T10:32:43","modified_gmt":"2023-06-21T08:32:43","slug":"good-news-for-households-in-south-africa-as-inflation-eases-more-than-expected","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/lifestyle\/697745\/good-news-for-households-in-south-africa-as-inflation-eases-more-than-expected\/","title":{"rendered":"Good news for households in South Africa as inflation eases more than expected"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Stats SA has published the latest inflation numbers for South Africa, showing annual consumer inflation slowed to 6.3% in May from 6.8% in April.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is the lowest reading since April 2022, when the rate was 5.9%, and reflects a month-on-month decline of 0.2%, and came in lower than expectations from economists, who forecast 6.4% to 6.7%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, the inflation rate remains outside the South African Reserve Bank\u2019s target range of 3% to 6%.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Food, transport and housing and utilities remain the biggest contributors to inflation, accounting for 2.1 and 1 percentage points, respectively. This is followed by miscellaneous goods and services (+0.9pp).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The annual rate for food and non-alcoholic beverages (NAB) was 11.8%, lower than April\u2019s print of 13.9%. The price index for this category increased by 0.3% between April and May, the lowest monthly reading since November 2021 (0.1%).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most food and NAB categories recorded lower annual inflation rates in May, except sugar, sweets and desserts, and cold beverages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Annual meat inflation slowed to 7.1% from 9.5% in April. On average, meat prices declined by 0.4% between April and May, with notable monthly decreases recorded for stewing beef (down 2.4%), pork (down 1.4%) and beef mince (down 1.3%).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After peaking at an annual rate of 37.6% in August 2022, the index for oils and fats continued to fall sharply in May, recording a ninth consecutive month of decline. Prices for oils & fats decreased by 2.2% between April and May 2023, pulling the annual rate down to -2.4%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bread and cereals inflation slowed to 18.1% in May from 20.8% in April.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, the prices for sugar, sweets and desserts increased by 11.9% in the 12 months to May 2023, up from April\u2019s 10.7%. The reading in May is the highest since July 2017, when the rate was 14.5%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

White sugar increased sharply by 2.7% and slabs of chocolate by 2.9% between April and May. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the 12 months to May, the average price of a 2.5 kg bag of white sugar increased from R49.68 to R53.00. The average price of a slab of chocolate (80 grams) rose from R17.11 to R20.26 over the same period.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Those who enjoy fizzy drinks, mineral water and fruit juices have also had to dig deeper into their pockets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The cold beverages category recorded an average annual price increase of 10.5% in May, creeping up from 10.3% in April. May\u2019s reading is the highest since March 2019 (13.1%).<\/p>\n\n\n

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Dining out has become more popular but also more pricey<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Households have recently rekindled a liking for restaurants and hotels, according to the latest gross domestic product (GDP) figures. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Increased household expenditure in the first quarter of the year was mainly driven by spending on restaurants and hotels, which jumped by 6.9% in real terms (constant 2015 prices and seasonally adjusted).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Price data for May shows annual inflation for the restaurants and hotels category accelerating to 6.4% from 5.1% in April. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Restaurant prices rose by 1.2% between April and May. This took the annual rate for restaurants to 7.4% from 7.1% in April.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Restaurant products with the highest annual increases in May were fish and seafood (up 11.3%), pizza (up 9.3%) and red meat-based products (up 9.0%). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Products with large month-on-month increases in May were pies (up 2.3%), hot beverages (up 1.9%), poultry-based products (up 1.8%), hamburgers (up 1.6%) and red meat-based products (up 1.5%).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other notable price shifts in April<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The transport index increased by 7.0% year-on-year in May 2023. This was lower than April\u2019s print of 7.6%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Annual motor vehicle inflation accelerated to 7.5% from 7.2% in April. This is the highest reading since February 2017, when the rate was 8.1%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The annual rate for fuel decreased further in May, cooling to 3.5% from 5.0% in April.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Annual health inflation has ticked up since January 2023 \u2013 when the rate was 4.8% \u2013 to reach 5.8% in May. This was mainly the result of higher prices for medical products, which recorded an annual rate of 5.8% (up from 4.8% in April).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Notable monthly price increases were recorded for painkillers (up 3.0%) and vitamin and mineral supplements (up 6.6%).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Read: These are the best loyalty programmes in South Africa \u2013 according to shoppers<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The latest data from Stats SA shows that inflation has continued to ease – dropping by more than expected in May.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":669109,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9876],"tags":[1809],"class_list":["post-697745","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lifestyle","tag-stats-sa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/697745","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=697745"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/697745\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":697801,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/697745\/revisions\/697801"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/669109"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=697745"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=697745"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=697745"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}