In June, the annual Consumer Price Index (CPI) change was 5.1%, down slightly from 5.2% in May, according to new data from StatsSA.

Inflation has consistently stayed within the 5% to 6% range for the past ten months. The monthly rate for June was 0.1%.

Annual Food Inflation at a 45-Month Low

The annual inflation rate for food and non-alcoholic beverages (NAB) decreased to 4.6% in June, down from 4.7% in April and May.

This marks a significant drop from the peak of 14.0% observed in March 2023. The June figure is the lowest since September 2020, when it was 3.8% amid the COVID-19 lockdowns.

Several food and NAB categories saw lower annual inflation rates in June, including sugar, sweets, and desserts; vegetables; fruit; milk, eggs, and cheese; and fish.

However, inflation rates increased for hot beverages; bread and cereals; oils and fats; cold beverages; and meat.

Hot beverage inflation surged to 16.5% in June from 14.2% in May, with a monthly change of 2.2%. This increase was driven by higher prices for drinking chocolate (up 3.5%), black tea (up 2.7%), instant coffee (up 2.2%), and rooibos tea (up 1.6%).

Bread and cereal inflation rose to 5.2% in June from 3.9% in May, marking its first increase in 14 months. The monthly rate was 1.5%, with notable price hikes for maize products such as maize meal (up 3.3%) and samp (up 3.0%).

The producer price index (PPI) for final manufacturing reported a 7.2% monthly increase (4.6% annual) for maize products in May, suggesting widespread inflation for maize-based products.

Milk, eggs, and cheese inflation has slowed over the past six months, with the rate dropping to 7.3% in June from 14.5% in December 2023. Annual egg inflation fell to 20.4%, marking its seventh consecutive month of decline.

Housing & Utilities and Transport Inflation

Housing and utilities inflation was 5.5% in June, down from 5.8% in May. Quarterly surveys showed a 0.8% increase in actual housing rentals from the first to the second quarter of 2024, while imputed rentals rose by 0.7%.

Townhouses experienced the highest quarterly change with actual rentals up 1.5% and imputed rentals up 1.2%. Domestic worker wages increased by 1.6% over the same period.

Transport inflation eased to 5.5% in June from 6.3% in May. New vehicle inflation slowed to 5.2%, down from a high of 8.4% in September 2023.

Data from naamsa indicates a 9.0% year-on-year decline in new passenger vehicle sales in June.

Used vehicle inflation was 3.0%, down from 3.7% in May.

Fuel prices decreased by 4.6% between May and June, lowering the annual fuel inflation rate to 7.6% from 9.3%.