South Africans and Namibians facing high prices
Annual consumer price inflation remained unchanged at 5.9% in April 2022, Statistics SA reported on Wednesday.This is the third time in five months that the rate hit 5.9% - which is close to the Reserve Bank’s upper target rate for inflation of 6%. Consumer inflation last breached 6% in 2017.
Transport costs were 14.7% higher than a year ago due to higher fuel prices.
Despite the temporary reduction in fuel levies in April, fuel prices were 29% higher than in April 2021. From March to April, fuel prices increased by 2.2%.
Prices of food and non-alcoholic beverages increased by 6.0% year-on-year, which was slightly cooler than March’s 6.2% increase.
Food prices have surged as the fall-out from the Ukraine war disrupted supplies of staple grains and vegetable oil. South African wheat prices are currently at record-high levels.
Statistics SA reports that the average price of sunflower oil (750 ml) increased from R31.24 in March to R34.89 in April.
Meat prices rose by 1% between March and April, with stewing beef (up 2.8%), mince (up 2.2%) and individually frozen chicken pieces (up 1.4%) seeing the biggest increases. Prices of hot beverages also showed a big monthly increase (up 1.3% from March), with ground coffee (up 2.4%) and instant coffee (up 2.1%) growing rapidly more expensive.
The inflation rate will be front of mind as the SA Reserve Bank’s monetary policy committee meets this week. Some economists now expect wthat the committee will hike interest rates by 50 basis points on Thursday – which will be its largest hike since January 2016.
Namibia
Statistics released by the Namibia Statistics Agency (NSA) indicated that inflation in Namibia during April 2022 stood at 5.6%.
This is a 1.7 percentage points increase when compared to 3.9% recorded April 2021 and 1.1 percentage points more when compared to 4.5% registered in March this year. During the first four months of 2022, inflation in Namibia averaged 4.8%.
The three main contributors to the annual inflation rate for April 2022 were mainly transport, food and non-alcoholic beverages, alcoholic beverages and tobacco.
Inflation in the transport category which carries the third largest weight of 14.28 in Namibia Statistics consumer basket was mainly driven by fuel which recorded an inflation 27.3% compared to 19.2% recorded in March 2022. On average, about 14% of household budgets is spent on transport. On a positive note, the Ministry of Mines and Energy provided some relief on fuel prices for the next three months, thanks to a reduction in levies and taxes.
For the food and non-alcoholic category which carries the second largest weight of 16.45, inflation was mainly driven by oil and fats sub category which recorded an inflation rate of 23.4% compared to 15.6% in Mach 2022. The alcoholic beverages and tobacco category’s inflation stood at 4.5% and has the fourth largest weight of 12.59.-Fin24
-Additional reporting by Phillepus Uusiku