Inflation rises slightly in October
Stats SA released the consumer
price inflation on Wednesday - which has increased to 5.1% annually in October
from 4.9% in September last year.
On a month-on-month basis inflation stood 0.5%.
Core inflation - which excludes the price of food, non-alcoholic beverages, petrol and energy - remained unchanged at 4.2%.
Efficient Group economist Francois Stoffberg says inflation was lower than expected.
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"Which puts us in a good place. The average for the last couple of months this year - 4.6% - means that even if we see another strong inflationary month next month we'll most likely see inflation well below 5%," Stoffberg says.
He believes the lower than expected inflation could be due to lack of consumer demand.
"We feel the slump in the economy, which translates to lower trend growth demand. We saw that in retail and now translating to lower inflation numbers. On the one end definitely good for the buying side of the consumers but on the supply side, economy side, on the growing side not necessarily good news.”
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