BusinessLive reports on changes in the basket of goods and services used in the calculation of the consumer price index (CPI) by Statistics SA.  The changes were part of the reweighting and rebasing exercise that Stats SA conducts every four years.  

The outcome of the latest such exercise was announced on Friday and it provides a window on the changing spending habits of South Africans.  Marmite is out and so are teapots, postage stamps, tennis balls and board games.  But frozen pizzas are now in, as are coffee mugs, soccer balls and video games.  The stand-out changes are that food has a much larger weight in the new CPI basket than it did in the old one, while transport has a smaller one.  Food and fuel prices tend to be big drivers of inflation trends from month to month.

• Read this report by Hilary Joffe in full at BusinessLive
• See too, New items added to SA’s consumer inflation basket, at BusinessTech

Get other news reports at the SA Labour News home page