Inflation eases to 4.4% in South Africa, marking the lowest rate since 2020

StatsSA has announced that inflation has hit its lowest level of 4.4% in 2024 since 2020.

The average inflation rate for 2024 was 4.4%, down from the average of 6.0% in 2023, according to the statistics bureau. 

Inflation last year was the lowest in four years since the pandemic in 2020, when the average rate was 3.3%.

StatsSA has also revealed that consumer inflation grew for a second consecutive month, increasing to 3.0% in December from 2.9% in November and 2.8% in October.

The monthly rate in December was 0.1%.

Food inflation creeps higher

Inflation for food and non-alcoholic beverages (NAB) increased to 2.5%, up from 2.3% in November.

The annual rate for bread and cereals stayed steady at 3,7% while several wheat-based products declined in price between November and December.

Examples include:

- instant noodles down by 2.2%

- cake flour down by 1.1%

- macaroni down by 0.7%

- brown bread down by 0.6%

StatsSA stated that the price index for meat decreased by 0.4% in the 12 months to December, which represents its lowest annual rate since May 2019 (-0.9%).

Products that experienced the largest annual declines include sausages (3.3%), pork ( 2.2%) and whole chicken (1.7%). Several products were more expensive such as beef extract which increased by 5.1%, bacon up by 4.8% as well as ham up by 4.2%.

The price index for hot beverages jumped by 13.5%, the highest annual rate among all food & NAB groups. Products in this category continued to witness sharp price increases.

Instant coffee was 16.1% more expensive in December 2024 in comparison to December 2023 while other items that experienced increases include black tea (14.2%), drinking chocolate (14.1%), ground coffee (8.0%), rooibos tea (7.8%) and cappuccino sachets (3.8%).

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