Stats SA revises inflation food basket

At the same time, it removed 53 products and reorganised 29 products through merging, splitting, or reclassification.

Patrick Kelly, the Chief Director for Price Statistics at Stats SA, revealed the new basket on Tuesday at the official release of the Income and Expenditure Survey (IES) 2022/23 and the updated Consumer Price Index (CPI) basket and weights.

Kelly says it was difficult to gauge the update’s impact on upcoming inflation releases, given subtle shifts in the weighting of some items.

The inflation basket will now contain 391 items, down from 396.

New food products added to the basket include basmati rice, meat bones, meat patties, chicken nuggets, and ready-made meals.

Items that were removed include ready-mix flour, flavoured milk, frozen potato chips and ground coffee/coffee beans.

He said the new basket expands the coverage of education-related items.

"Stats SA will now price a range of school uniform items, school transport services and after school centres are also included, it will now also be possible to track education inflation separately for private and public schools and universities, crechés and stationery items remain."

-Load shedding-

Kelly added that load shedding may have influenced the changes in the basket, leading to the inclusion of gas in cylinders and candles.

"Municipal services are expanded to include refuse collection and sewage removal. The removed Household items include the humble toaster/sandwich maker, household batteries and wax shoe polish."

-Transportation-

Kelly said the rise in e-hailing services ensured its inclusion as a new item.

"School transport services, mentioned earlier, are also added to the transport category. Driving licences and post office box rentals no longer make the cut. New technology products are included. Streaming services, modems and routers, USB and external hard drives, power banks, and charging cables will now be tracked by the consumer price index. Landline telephone fees and satellite TV decoders are no longer part of the basket.

"Transport declines to 13,9% from 14,4%. The biggest reason for this decline is a reduction in the weight of fuel that shrank to 3,9% from 4,8%. However, the weight for passenger transport services increases to 2,9% from 2,1%. Despite the overall decline, the transport category has the third-highest weight in the basket."

The country's consumers are spending proportionally more on telecommunications services, including cell phone data and calls and internet services.

"The weight for the information & communication category increases to 5,5% from 3,9%. Insurance decreases to 8,4% from 9,9%. The decline is largely due to a softer weight for health insurance,” Kelly said.

-Housing and utilities-

The highest weight category in the CPI is housing and utilities.

This includes municipal services, levies for sectional title complexes, actual rent paid by tenants and owners’ equivalent rent.

"The statistics agency last overhauled the inflation basket in 2022. The changes will be introduced in January’s inflation release on 19 February, with December 2024 as the new reference period."

"The weight for food and non-alcoholic beverages increases to 18,2% from 17,1%. This means that South Africans are spending proportionally more on food products than they did in 2019", said Kelly.

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