BL Premium reports that Stats SA announced on Wednesday that the consumer price index (CPI) rose 6.5% year-on-year in May, thus breaching the Reserve Bank’s upper limit of 6% amid relentless increases in food and petrol prices.
This was the highest reading since January 2017, when the inflation rate was 6.6%, and well above market expectations of 6.2%. Core inflation, which excludes prices of food, nonalcoholic beverages, fuel and energy, also quickened to 4.1% in May 2022, the highest since August 2019, from 3.9% the previous month. The main contributors to the 6.5% inflation rate were food and nonalcoholic beverages (an increase of 7.6% year-on-year); housing and utilities (4.9% year-on-year); transport (15.7% year-on-year); and miscellaneous goods and services. Stats SA said fuel in particular remained a major contributor to inflation. “Without the impact of fuel from the CPI reading in May, the headline rate falls to 5.1% from 6.5%,” Stats SA indicated. Diesel prices jumped by 8.1% between April and May, taking the annual rate to more than 45%. Petrol prices moderated between April and May, edging lower by 0.7%. Despite that decline, petrol was almost 27% more expensive than it had been in May 2021.
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Thuletho Zwane at BusinessLive (subscriber access only)
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