South Africa’s annual consumer inflation eased to 4.6 percent on a year-on-year basis in November compared with the October rate of 4.8 percent, Statistics South Africa said on Wednesday.
The consumer price index increased by 0.1 percent month-on-month in November, Stats SA said.
Among the contributors to the headline annual inflation number, the transport component decreased from 0.8 percentage points in October to 0.6 percentage points in November.
Food and non-alcoholic beverages contributed 0.1 percentage points to the monthly consumer rate.
“Although fruit has the highest monthly increase of 3.8 percent, fruit prices are actually still cheaper than last year with an annual rate of -4.6 percent,” said Stats SA chief director for price statistics Patrick Kelly.
“Vegetables increased by 1.3 percent in the month; milk, eggs and cheese by one percent. Meat is still showing higher annual changes of 14.9 percent.”
At its last monetary policy committee meeting for 2017 last month, the South African Reserve Bank said it expected inflation to remain within a 3 – 6 percent target range.
It, however, cited upside risks from credit rating reviews and the economic implications of the ruling African National Congress’s December 16-20 conference to elect new leaders. (via African News Agency)
