(3 minute read)
· The annual consumer price inflation (CPI) increased
marginally in South Africa by 0.3% to 3.2% in January, up from 3.1% in December 2020, according to Statistics SA
· Prices of food and non-alcoholic beverages, housing and utilities and miscellaneous goods and services contribute to the increase
· Food and non-alcoholic beverages increased by 5.4%
year-on-year, an increase of a 0.9 percentage point to the total CPI annual rate
The annual consumer price inflation (CPI) increased marginally in South Africa by 0.3% to 3.2% in January, up from 3.1% in December 2020, according to Statistics SA. Prices of food and non-alcoholic beverages, housing and utilities and miscellaneous goods and services contribute to the increase. Food and non-alcoholic beverages increased by 5.4% year-on-year, an increase of a 0.9 percentage point to the total CPI annual rate.
Housing and utilities increased by 2.6% year-on-year and contributed a 0.6 percentage point. Miscellaneous goods and services increased by 6.5% year-on-year and contributed 1 percentage point. Due to the ban on the sale of alcoholic beverages from retail outlets, restaurants, bars and hotels, the monthly changes in these indicators were assigned using the headline change in the CPI for January. In-store collection of price data between 15 January and 15 February was suspended to protect its staff against Covid-19 and prices were collected from
retailers’ online portals and phone calls.
Although the number of prices taken for compilation of the CPI is significantly lower, adequate numbers of price observations were recorded to avoid errors. Due to Covid-19 health protocols, retail-based prices recorded across all regions have been pooled to compute a national average. These were then applied to each elementary index at a regional level.
