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BusinessLive reports that consumer inflation remained unchanged at 4.5% in June compared with May. Measured by the annual change in the consumer price index (CPI), inflation’s print at 4.5% was at the midpoint of the SA Reserve Bank’s (SARB’s) 3%-6% target band.
Although June marked the seventh-consecutive month inflation was at or below the Bank’s mid-point target, higher food price inflation might prompt some caution. The main contributor to the inflation rate was housing and utilities, costs of which rose 4.9% year-on-year. The annual inflation rates for goods and for services were 4.0% and 4.8%, respectively, while food price inflation picked up, notably for bread and cereals, rising 7.3% year-on-year. Investec economist Kamilla Kaplan said that inflation was likely to be higher in 2019 than the Bank’s forecast (4.6%), but added that this was still well within the 3%-6% target range. “Slowing wage growth, the moderation of inflation expectations to multi-year lows and sluggish economic growth point to an absence of meaningful upside inflationary pressures,” Kaplan pointed out. The SARB warned earlier in July that food price inflation should pick up towards the end of 2019, and would peak in the second and third quarters of 2020 at 5.6%, year-on-year.
- Read the full original of Karl Gernetzky’s report in the above regard at BusinessLive
Get other news reports at the SA Labour News home page