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Annual consumer price inflation was 2.9% in November 2024, slightly up from 2.8% in October.
Statistics South Africa said the CPI remained unchanged month-on-month in November 2024.
But, according to chief director for price statistics, Patrick Kelley, there were some interesting shifts, particularly in the food, and non-alcoholic beverages category, dropping to 2.3% in November, from 3.6% in October.
He said CPI remained unchanged month-on-month in November 2024.
According Kelley, there were also some interesting shifts in annual CPI, particularly in the food, and non-alcoholic beverages category, which dropped to 2.3% in November, from 3.6% in October.
"This is the lowest annual inflation print for this category since December, 2010, almost 14 years ago when the rate was 1.6%.
"Eight of the 11 food and non-alcoholic beverages groups recorded softer inflation, including bread and cereals, milk, eggs and cheese, vegetables, hot and cold beverages, meat, and sugar, sweets and deserts," he said.
Kelley said the oils, fats and fruit category recorded higher inflation rates for the month.
He noted that the annual increase for bread and cereals moderated for the third successive month to 3.7%, its lowest level in almost three years.
"Lower rates were recorded for staples such as brown and white bread, maize meal, pasta and rice. Annual milk, eggs and cheese inflation declined to its lowest level in almost five-and-a-half years. Egg inflation transitioned into deflationary territory in November, falling to a -3.7% from 7.1% in October.
"This is down from a high of 39.9% a year ago," Kelley said.
#ZAInflation || Western Cape had the highest #inflation rate in November while Limpopo had the lowest.
— Stats SA (@StatsSA) December 11, 2024
Read more here: https://t.co/eVb0UdnYbh
#StatsSA #CPI #GovZAupdates pic.twitter.com/PzOrXhXAb2
Shifting focus to fuel, Kelley said SA recorded a month-on-month increase of 0.9% in November, though the annual rate is still in deflation at -13.6% compared to 19.1% in October.
He said the price index for restaurants and hotels rose by 5.9% in the 12 months to November, with the increase for restaurants at 5.1% and 7.5% for hotels.
Kelley said annual inflation for this category is down from the recent high of 7.5% in June.
Stats SA also noted that the poorest households have had to bear the highest inflation rates since January 2022, which then peaked at 11.3% in April, 2023.
This figure had however declined to 3.8% in November, 2024, but remains the highest across all groups.
"By contrast, the wealthiest households saw a modest annual increase of 3% to November, slightly above the national average," said Patrick Kelley, chief director of price statistics.
He said Stats SA calculates the inflation rates for ten expenditure categories which provided insight on the impact of CPI on different socio-economic groups.
Meanwhile, Kelley said the province with the highest inflation rate in November was the Western Cape at 3.4%, and which had remained above the headline rate for the whole of 2024.
"On the other end of the country, Limpopo, with an annual increase of 2.4% recorded the lowest rate in November," Kelley concluded.
Stats SA noted that the November inflation rate for the Eastern Cape was 2.8%.
