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16 February 2022 – Consumer price inflation cooled to 5.7% in January, down from 5.9% in December.
This was mainly the result of lower fuel prices, says Statistics SA.
In the first week of January, petrol prices were lowered by between 68c and 71c a litre. Still, due to large petrol price hikes in 2021, transport prices were 14.5% higher than a year ago.
The consumer price index (CPI) increased by 0.2% between December and January, compared to 0.6% between November and December.
Food prices saw big hikes in January, with inflation for oils and fats the highest in almost 11 years, says Stats SA.
Prices for cooking oil were 32% higher than a year ago. The average price of a bottle of cooking oil (750 ml) increased to R31.12 in January 2022 from R24.25 a year ago, Stats SA says.
Vegetable prices also saw big increases, with an annual increase of 8.6%. Large hikes were recorded in the prices of tomatoes (17.4%), lettuce (15.3%), spinach (6.9%), carrots (5.7%) and pumpkin (2.6%).
The latest consumer inflation data is the first to be compiled using the recently updated basket of goods and services.
The basket represents 415 products that South African households typically buy, and each has a weight according to how much is spent, on average, per product. Prices of the products are tracked every month to measure inflation. In the latest round of changes,
Statistics SA has dropped DVD players and satellite dishes – but included a range of other products, including gin, samp, pureed baby food, cappuccino sachets, fabric softener and razors. Source (News24.com)