Statistics South Africa has published the latest consumer price index, which shows that annual consumer price inflation has broken through the upper limit of the Reserve Bank’s target range for the second consecutive month.
Consumer price inflation jumped to 7.4% in June which went up from May’s 6.5%. Stats SA says the June rate is the highest reading since 2009, with soaring food prices and transport services pushing up the annua CPI.
“Many countries around the globe have experienced rising inflation in recent months, making it a hot topic for debate, particularly in the area of monetary policy,” Statistics South Africa said.
“Prices of food and non-alcoholic beverages (NAB) increased by 8.6% year-on-year in June. This is the highest annual rate for food and NAB since March 2017 when the country was recovering from severe drought. The main groups contributing to high food inflation in June 2022 were bread and cereals, meat, oils and fats.”
For bread and cereal products, the monthly increase was 2.6%, with notable price increases for maize meal at 5.2%, brown bread at 3.2%and macaroni at 3.0%. Meat prices increased by 9.5%in the 12 months to June.
The index for oils and fats recorded an annual increase of 32.5% almost compared with 27% which was recorded in May.
The prices of fuel increased by a whopping 45% in June, while monthly increases were recoded for taxi fares at 2.7%, long distance buses at 11.7% and airfares at 7.1%
Source: Business Tech, East Coast Radio, ENCA, image from East Coast Radio: Pixabay