South Africa’s inflation exhibits slight dip, however meals costs stay unchanged

South Africa’s annual inflation charge fell barely in January to six.9% from 7.2% the earlier month, however meals costs continued to rise, the nation’s statistics company StatsSA mentioned Wednesday.

“The principle contributors to the annual inflation charge of 6.9% have been meals and non-alcoholic drinks, housing and utilities, and transport,” StatsSA mentioned in an announcement.

Particularly, vegetable costs rose sharply, at 5.2% between December and January. Bread and cereal costs rose by 22.1% in January in comparison with a 12 months earlier and meat by 11.2%.

Inflation had reached an all-time excessive within the nation of 7.8% in July, fuelled as elsewhere on this planet by the conflict in Ukraine. In an try and curb the development, the South African central financial institution has repeatedly raised its major coverage charge, now at 7.25%.

The central financial institution expects inflation to sluggish to five.4% in 2023, with GDP progress weak at simply 0.3%.