BusinessLive reports that Stats SA announced on Wednesday that annual consumer price inflation (CPI) quickened from 5.7% in February to 5.9% in March, but remained just below the upper band of the SA Reserve Bank’s target range.

The main contributors to the 5.9% annual inflation rate were food and nonalcoholic beverages, housing and utilities, transport, and miscellaneous goods and services. The recent pressure on inflation has been worsened by the Russia-Ukraine war, while core inflation and price pressures in the services sector are also building as the SA economy recovers from the pandemic. Just last week in its latest forecast, the Reserve Bank said domestic inflation would temporarily breach the target band of 3%-6% in the second quarter of 2022 and would average 5.8% for the year as a whole, before easing to an average of 4.6% in 2023.

• Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Thuletho Zwane at BusinessLive
• See too, Inflation on the rise, but not expected to go too far beyond 6%, at The Citizen (subscriber access only)

Get other news reports at the SA Labour News home page