Consumer inflation at its lowest since March
Headline consumer inflation dropped to 4 % in January, down from 4, 5% in December.
This is the lowest annual rate since March 2018.
Chief economist at Investec Annabel Bishop says the drop in inflation is mainly due to the lower fuel price.
"Obviously now looking ahead we saw a 7c a litre increase in February and likely around this 7c a litre increase in March, so it seems as though these large petrol price increase are potentially over for now.”
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She says Finance Minister Tito Mboweni's budget speech on Wednesday is likely to focus on the crisis at Eskom.
"He'll focus on troubles at our key electricity generator Eskom, obviously a state-owned entity which is seeing potential financial trouble not least because of its very high debt level which have risen to R440 billion."
Bishop says Mboweni is between a rock and a hard place, having to give financial support to Eskom without it resulting in a credit rating downgrade.