The inflation rate shot up for the second consecutive month: from 6.8% in April to 6.3% in May. The rate is now the lowest in 13 months.
Statistics South Africa (StatsSA) says May’s reading is the lowest since April 2022 when the inflation rate stood at 5.9%.
The annual rate for food and non-alcoholic beverages also fell by more than two percentage points: from 13.9% in April to 11.8% in May.
StatsSA says most categories involving food and non-alcoholic beverages recorded lower annual inflation rates last month, with the exception of sugar, sweets, desserts and soft drinks.
Bitter taste for those with a sweet tooth
The price of sugar, sweets and desserts rose by 11.9% in the 12 months to May – the highest reading since July 2017 when the inflation rate stood at 14.5%.
The price of white sugar rose by 2.7% between April and May. A bar of chocolate has meanwhile become 2.9% more expensive.
In the 12 months to May, the average price of a 2.5 kg bag of white sugar rose from R49.68 to R53.00. The average price of a bar of chocolate (80 grams) rose from R17.11 to R20.26 over the same period.
Soft drinks, fruit juice and mineral water are also more expensive.
The soft drinks category recorded an average annual price increase of 10.5% in May, up from 10.3% in April. May’s reading is the highest since March 2019 (13.1%).
Dining out more popular, but more expensive
According to the latest GDP figures, households have recently rediscovered a fondness for restaurants and hotels. Increased household spending in the first quarter of the year is specifically attributed to spending at restaurants and hotels, which rose by 6.9% in real terms.
Restaurant prices rose by 1.2% between April and May. This pushed the annual rate for restaurants to 7.4% from 7.1% in April.
The products at restaurants with the highest annual price increases are fish and seafood (11.3%), pizza (9.3%) and red meat products (9%).
The products with large month-on-month increases in May were pies (2.3%), hot drinks (1.9%), poultry products (1.8%), hamburgers (1.6%) and red meat products (more than 1.5%).
Meat now cheaper
Annual meat inflation did slow down from 9.5% in April to 7.1% in May. Meat prices fell by 0.4% on average between April and May, with notable monthly decreases in the price of stew beef (-2.4%), pork (-1.4%) and ground beef (-1.3%).
The price of oils and fats fell sharply again in May – the ninth consecutive month of decline. Prices for oils and fats fell by 2.2% between April and May, bringing the annual rate down to -2.4%.
Bread and cereal inflation slowed to 18.1% in May from 20.8% in April.
