{"id":832633,"date":"2025-07-23T11:08:15","date_gmt":"2025-07-23T09:08:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=832633"},"modified":"2025-07-23T11:08:15","modified_gmt":"2025-07-23T09:08:15","slug":"beef-prices-in-south-africa-hit-with-record-increase","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/finance\/832633\/beef-prices-in-south-africa-hit-with-record-increase\/","title":{"rendered":"Beef prices in South Africa hit with record increase"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Inflation has ticked up in South Africa, with beef prices, especially those for stewing beef, seeing massive price increases as the country battles an outbreak of foot and mouth disease.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Consumer inflation increased in June to 3.0%, rising from 2.8% in April and May. The month-on-month change in CPI was 0.3%. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stats SA said that the annual rate for food & non-alcoholic beverages (NAB) reached a 15-month high of 5.1% in June. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meat, especially beef, continues to be the main driver of food inflation. Beef prices spiked for a third straight month, with large increases for stewing beef, mince and steak.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stewing beef rose by an annual 21.2%<\/strong>, the fastest pace on record since the current CPI series began in January 2017. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Local sellers<\/a> of beef have recently warned South Africans about price hikes due to shortages of protein, driven by the outbreak of foot and mouth disease at the country\u2019s largest feedlots.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Looking elsewhere, other processed food items also saw an uptick. The annual rates for fruits & nuts and vegetables remained in double-digit territory for a second straight month. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Products that saw sharp price increases in the 12 months to June included beetroot, lettuce and carrots. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, inflation cooled for many other food & NAB categories, such as white rice, hot cereals, and cold cereals. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

While maize meals register high annual increases, the monthly change in June was 0.4%, the lowest since November 2024 (-0.1%).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Several dairy products are also cheaper than they were a year ago. Lower prices were recorded for fresh full-cream milk, fresh low-fat milk and eggs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The decreases helped pull the milk, other dairy products & eggs index into deflationary territory, with an annual change of -0.5%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That said, the category still saw a monthly rise of 0,3%, the highest since August 2024. Cheese products significantly contributed to this increase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Away from food, Stats SA collects rental data once a quarter. The annual change for actual rentals rose from 2.9% in Q1 to 3.0% in Q2. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The rate for imputed rentals also increased slightly, from 2.4% to 2.5% over the same period.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fuel prices continued a downward trajectory, declining for a fourth consecutive month. Fuel is, on average, 11.2% cheaper than a year ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Outlook<\/strong> <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Investec Chief Economist Annabel Bishop said that CPI inflation is expected to rise further over the third quarter, as low base effects boost the outcome. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

CPI inflation is likely to go above 3.0% in July, then rise towards 4.0% by the end of the year, and run above 4.0% next year. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

That said, the real interest rate in South Africa is still very high, with the repo rate standing at 7.25%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe expect at least one further 25bp cut in the repo rate this year, either at the July MPC meeting this month, or later in the year and a further 25bp cut next year, as the Reserve Bank remains hawkish,\u201d said Bishop. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHowever, additional cuts in the repo rate are warranted of at least -1.00%, given the neutral interest rate is about 2.0% above inflation, and demand is weak. The SARB has room to cut at each remaining meeting this year and should do so.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Stats SA says that high beef prices were the main contributor to the 5.1% rise in food prices in the latest inflation print. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":95,"featured_media":662435,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11121],"tags":[23009,1498,1809],"class_list":["post-832633","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-finance","tag-beef","tag-investec","tag-stats-sa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/832633","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=832633"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/832633\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":832641,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/832633\/revisions\/832641"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/662435"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=832633"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=832633"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=832633"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}