Inflation speeds up to 5.4% in September

This is up from 4,8% in August. 

This is an increase of 0.6% between August and September, bringing the CPI rate to the same level as June this year.

Patrick Kelly, Chief Director for Price Statistics at Stats SA, said the main contributors were food and non-alcoholic beverages, which increased 8.1% year-on-year, housing and utilities, miscellaneous goods and services and transport.

"The fuel index increased for a second consecutive month, rising by 7.6% between August and September. The price of inland 95 octane petrol hit a 13-month high of R24,54 in September,” Kelly said.

"After cooling for the past five months, the annual rate for food and non-alcoholic beverages inched higher to 8.1% from 8%". 

Kelly said poultry products were also more expensive in September due to the outbreak of bird flu in several provinces. 

"Fresh whole chicken was up to 2.2% between August and September, frozen chicken portions increased by 1.9% and eggs by 0.3%.

"Inflation for bread and cereals eased for a fifth straight month, reaching 9.2% in September," he said. 

Speaking at the release of the SA Reserve Bank’s second monetary policy review on Tuesday, Governor Lesetja Kganyago warned that the battle against inflation is far from over. 

"Inflation has been more persistent than initially thought, prompting central banks to say that they are going to keep policy tight for longer,” he said. 

“But what we have seen recently has been that headline inflation has continued to decelerate but remains well above desired levels, requiring many advanced economy central banks to continue to consider even raising raise further.

“Meanwhile, world growth has been staggering along. The battle against inflation is far from being won, both here at home and globally.”

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