{"id":749462,"date":"2024-02-07T09:01:14","date_gmt":"2024-02-07T07:01:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=749462"},"modified":"2024-02-07T09:02:05","modified_gmt":"2024-02-07T07:02:05","slug":"another-blow-for-cash-strapped-south-africans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/finance\/749462\/another-blow-for-cash-strapped-south-africans\/","title":{"rendered":"Another blow for cash-strapped South Africans"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>South African consumers are having to contend with higher fuel prices this month, which could push many over the edge. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Today, 7 February, petrol prices have been hiked by 75 cents per litre, while diesel has gone up by 70 to 73 cents a litre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This has increased the inland price of 95 petrol from R22.49 per litre to R23.24 per litre. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-wp-embed is-provider-businesstech wp-block-embed-businesstech\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"wp-embedded-content\" data-secret=\"F17xi1mQ8T\"><a href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/energy\/748370\/here-is-the-official-petrol-price-for-february-5\/\">Here is the official petrol price for February<\/a><\/blockquote><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-embedded-content\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" style=\"position: absolute; clip: rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px);\" title=\"&#8220;Here is the official petrol price for February&#8221; &#8212; BusinessTech\" src=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/energy\/748370\/here-is-the-official-petrol-price-for-february-5\/embed\/#?secret=Cl7dOiaEeA#?secret=F17xi1mQ8T\" data-secret=\"F17xi1mQ8T\" width=\"500\" height=\"282\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>The increase followed increases in the average international product prices for Petrol, Diesel and Illuminating Paraffin, while the rand also weakened against the US dollar over the period. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The increase in fuel prices will deal a further blow to consumers who are already battling increased interest rates, high inflation, and growing costs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWith no end in sight to the volley of living cost increases aimed at them, and with consumers already cutting back as much as they can, the <strong>latest petrol price increase<\/strong> will cut deeply into the little disposable income people still have left &#8211; making it nigh<strong> impossible for the majority of South Africans to make it through the month<\/strong>,&#8221; said Neil Roets, CEO of\u00a0Debt Rescue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;Yet, somehow they are expected to make do. This is deeply concerning.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Roets added that a decline in personal disposable income is a major red flag, as it usually leads to a rise in household debt. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cConsumers need lower inflation and lower interest rates. The former is key because most of household spending is from disposable income,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\"><strong>Some hope <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the latest Altron FinTech Household Resilience Index\u00a0(AFHRI), economist Roelof Botha said that the severe pressure that South Africans find themselves in is due to the restrictive monetary policy adopted by the South African Reserve Bank (SARB). <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The ratio between household disposable income and household debt costs has been the worst-performing indicator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cAfter increasing consistently since 2016, this ratio took a hefty knock in Q2 2020 induced by the COVID-19 lockdowns, but then quickly recovered to a multi-year high. The reciprocal of this ratio, i.e, debt costs to income, has risen from a low of 6.7% in Q4 2021 to 8.9% Q3 2023 \u2013 an increase of some 33%,\u201d Botha said. <\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><a  data-lightbox=\"post-image\" href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/altron-fintech-1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"661\" height=\"466\" src=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/altron-fintech-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-749488\" srcset=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/altron-fintech-1.jpg 661w, https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/altron-fintech-1-300x211.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 661px) 100vw, 661px\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Source: Altron<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n<p>Looking more positively, Botha said that lower interest rates will almost definitely lead to a new growth trend in the AFHRI. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, the lingering effects of higher debt levels and subdued wage growth will be felt during the first six months 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-wp-embed is-provider-businesstech wp-block-embed-businesstech\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"wp-embedded-content\" data-secret=\"xVPwTvKYVa\"><a href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/finance\/747766\/boost-for-interest-rate-cuts-in-south-africa\/\">Boost for interest rate cuts in South Africa<\/a><\/blockquote><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-embedded-content\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" style=\"position: absolute; clip: rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px);\" title=\"&#8220;Boost for interest rate cuts in South Africa&#8221; &#8212; BusinessTech\" src=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/finance\/747766\/boost-for-interest-rate-cuts-in-south-africa\/embed\/#?secret=tykAL0YVHC#?secret=xVPwTvKYVa\" data-secret=\"xVPwTvKYVa\" width=\"500\" height=\"282\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Read<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/finance\/748584\/tax-hike-warning-for-south-africa-including-big-changes-for-remote-workers\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Tax hike warning for South Africa \u2013 including big changes for remote workers<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>South African motorists and consumers have woken up to yet another costly increase. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":95,"featured_media":716390,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11121],"tags":[6172,26],"class_list":["post-749462","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-finance","tag-debt-rescue","tag-headline"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/749462","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\/95"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=749462"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/749462\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":749536,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/749462\/revisions\/749536"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/716390"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=749462"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=749462"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=749462"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}