{"id":846551,"date":"2025-12-17T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-12-17T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=846551"},"modified":"2025-12-17T12:01:32","modified_gmt":"2025-12-17T10:01:32","slug":"good-news-surprise-for-south-africa-comes-with-a-harsh-edge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/lifestyle\/846551\/good-news-surprise-for-south-africa-comes-with-a-harsh-edge\/","title":{"rendered":"Good news surprise for South Africa comes with a harsh edge"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Annual consumer price inflation eased to 3.5% in November from 3.6% in October, dropping by 0.1% month-on-month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The cooling surprised against economists’ expectations, where the majority polled by Bloomberg and Reuters anticipated no change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, despite the positive of lower inflation, the data also reflected another worrying assessment: food price inflation is rising, driven by higher meat prices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Stats SA’s data, annual inflation cooled in five of the 13 product categories tracked, most notably in transport, recreation, sport & culture, as well as information & communication. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Four other categories registered no change, while food & non-alcoholic beverages (NAB), restaurants & accommodation services, and alcoholic beverages & tobacco recorded higher rates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The annual change in transport slipped to 0.7% in November from 1.5% in October, pulled lower by softer inflation rates for vehicles and fuel. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vehicle inflation was 0.9%, the lowest print in more than 12 years (since June 2013, when the rate was also 0.9%).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A closer look at the data reveals a consistent decline in used vehicle prices since August\u00a02024. Used vehicles were on average 1.8% cheaper in November\u00a02025 than in November\u00a02024. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

New vehicles, on the other hand, were 1.2% more expensive. Prices for used SUV\/MPV vehicles decreased by 3.9%, while prices for new bakkies rose by 2.8%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the fuel front, prices dropped by 2.2% between October and November, bringing the annual rate for fuel down to 0.1%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With fuel prices rising by between 30 and 80 cents per litre, this will likely impact the inflation reading for this month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, current fuel price recoveries point to a reversal of this in January 2026, which means petrol and diesel prices are unlikely to destabilise the inflation trajectory too much.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for food price inflation, which is currently being driven higher by meat prices, which have suffered due to a widespread outbreak of foot and mouth disease.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Annual inflation for food & NAB in November recorded its first increase in four months, quickening to 4.4% in November from 3.9% in October.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meat prices driving food inflation<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Meat prices increased on average by 12.2% in the 12 months to November, the highest annual rate since January\u00a02018 (13.4%). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beef products have experienced high inflation rates for several months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Nedbank, the double-digit increases in meat prices come amid ongoing outbreaks of foot-and-mouth disease, which were first publicly revealed in May 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The disease broke out at South Africa’s biggest feedlot and subsequently spread to most other provinces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the national government, producers and farmers worked to try to contain the outbreak, Agriculture Minister John Steenhuisen admitted last month that they were losing the battle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a bid to ramp up efforts to address the outbreak, Steenhuisen announced that the department would launch a vaccination drive to treat the entire national stock.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the impact of FMD has been felt most acutely in red meat products, Stats SA noted that other meat products have now joined the fray in seeing higher prices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It recorded price increases with pork, mutton & lamb, as well as sausage prices, “rising fast,” it said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Luckily, the price hikes in these proteins are being offset by moderation in most other food categories, with healthy crop yields particularly benefiting from favourable weather conditions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The milk, other dairy products & eggs category recorded its sixth successive month of deflation. The rate has slowly crept higher, though, from -1.6% in September to -1.5% in October and -1.2% in November.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Full-cream and low-fat fresh milk have occupied deflationary territory for most of 2025. Similarly, eggs have registered negative annual price changes since November\u00a02024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Inflation for cereal products moderated to an annual rate of 1.7% from 2.0% in October. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The monthly change was -0.6%. Prices for key staple cereals registered monthly declines, including white rice (-3.1%), maize meal (-0.8%), and white bread (-0.5%).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although the index for oils & fats recorded inflation of 5.2% in November (up from 4.8% in October), margarine products registered negative monthly changes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Specifically, the price index for brick margarine dropped by 2.1% and margarine spread by 0.1% between October and November.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The graph below shows the food and beverage products that recorded the sharpest price increases and decreases in November.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Annual consumer price inflation eased in November, beating economist expectations\u2014but rising meat prices are not slowing down.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":795065,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9876],"tags":[24143,10839,1809],"class_list":["post-846551","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lifestyle","tag-fmd","tag-food-prices","tag-stats-sa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/846551","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=846551"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/846551\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":846554,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/846551\/revisions\/846554"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/795065"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=846551"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=846551"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=846551"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}