{"id":257823,"date":"2023-04-19T14:03:37","date_gmt":"2023-04-19T12:03:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/inflation-rate-rises-to-7-1\/"},"modified":"2023-04-19T14:03:37","modified_gmt":"2023-04-19T12:03:37","slug":"inflation-rate-rises-to-7-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/inflation-rate-rises-to-7-1\/","title":{"rendered":"Inflation rate rises to 7.1%"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

Inflation in South Africa rose to 7.1% in March, Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) revealed on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

This means South Africans will pay more for goods, especially food and non-alcoholic beverages.<\/p>\n

According to the latest data, headline consumer inflation edged higher to 7.1% in March from 7% in February and 6.9% in January.  <\/p>\n

The monthly change in the consumer price index (CPI) was 1% in March, the most significant monthly rise since July 2022 when it was 1.5%.<\/p>\n

\u201cFood and non-alcoholic beverages and transport were the main drivers behind the annual and monthly increases,\u201d the national statistics agency said.<\/p>\n

Food <\/strong><\/p>\n

Stats SA said inflation for food and non-alcoholic beverages continued to accelerate, with prices increasing by 14% in the 12 months to March.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis represents the largest annual increase since the 14.7% rise in March 2009, 14 years ago.\u201d<\/p>\n

In March, milk, eggs, cheese, sugar, sweets and desserts, fruit and vegetables, and \u201cother food products\u201d experienced upward inflationary pressure.<\/p>\n

The milk, eggs and cheese product group witnessed its annual rate reaching 13.6% from the recent low of 3.7% in April 2022.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe reading in March is the highest annual increase since February 2009\u2019s print of 13.9%.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, bread, cereals, meat, oils, fats, and fish bucked the trend, recording slower growth.<\/p>\n

In addition, the annual increase for bread and cereals was 20.3% in March, down from 20.5% in February.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, meat inflation edged lower to 10.6% from 11.4% in February.<\/p>\n

The prices of oils and fats decreased for the seventh successive month, dragging the annual rate to 16% from 16.7%.<\/p>\n

Transport <\/strong><\/p>\n

The transport index, according to Stats SA, rose by 8.9% in the 12 months to March, down from the 9.9% annual rate recorded in February.<\/p>\n

The downward shift was led by eight consecutive months of slowing fuel inflation, which reached 8.1% in March from 10.9% in February.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is much lower than the 56.2% peak in July 2022,\u201d the agency said.<\/p>\n

However, fuel prices rose by 4.5% between February and March due to the price of inland 95-octane petrol rising by R1.27 per litre.<\/p>\n

School fees<\/strong><\/p>\n

Over all, school fees increased by 5.7% in 2023, higher than the 4.4% rise recorded in 2022.<\/p>\n

Primary and pre-primary schools went up by 6.3%, while secondary schools soared by 5.8%  and by 5.3% for tertiary institutions.<\/p>\n

In addition, textbooks cost 113% more, while school bags rose by 10.6%, which is the most significant annual increase since October 2009.<\/p>\n

Other price changes <\/strong><\/p>\n

New excise taxes for alcohol and tobacco products came into effect in March, contributing to a monthly increase of 2.2%.<\/p>\n

Data for the first quarter survey of housing rentals are also included in the CPI for March.<\/p>\n

Annual inflation for actual rentals was unchanged from December at 2.5%, while owner-occupied housing was 2.7% compared with December\u2019s reading of 2,8%.<\/p>\n

In March, inflation for household contents and services increased to 6.9% from 6.2% in February, which is the highest annual increase since June 2009.<\/p>\n

Prices for appliances, tableware and equipment have also gone up by 7.7%.<\/p>\n

Domestic worker wages increased by 1.2% in March from December, leading to a 5.2% annual rise \u2013 the highest since February 2019 when the same rate was recorded.<\/p>\n

Prices for personal care items increased by 11.1% from 12 months to March. This is the highest annual rate since 12% in October 2009. \u2013 SAnews.gov.za<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Inflation in South Africa rose to 7.1% in March, Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) revealed on Wednesday. This means South Africans will pay more for goods, especially food and non-alcoholic beverages. According to the latest data, headline consumer inflation edged higher to 7.1% in March from 7% in February and 6.9% in January.   The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":257824,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[38678],"class_list":{"0":"post-257823","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-south-africa","8":"tag-sanews","9":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/inflation-rate-rises-to-7-1.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257823","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=257823"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257823\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/257824"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=257823"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=257823"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=257823"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}