Cape Town - Meat prices continue to climb, making it even more expensive to get your teeth into a juicy steak, according to the latest consumer price index (CPI) from Stats SA.
However, you might want to stock up on tea and coffee as their prices have come down.
SA’s annual consumer price inflation fell to its lowest reading since September 2004, dragged lower mainly by falling fuel prices.
The consumer price index (CPI), which measures the prices of a range of consumer goods and services, increased by 2.1% in May compared with May last year. The reading for September 2004, 15 years and eight months ago, was 1.3%.
According to Stats SA: “For the third month in a row the prices of meat and dairy products have risen.
“Prices edged up by a monthly average of 0.3% in May.”
Statistician-general Risenga Maluleke said: “Meat prices climbed by 5.5% over the past 12 months, but registered a 0.1% fall between April and May. Stewing beef prices are 2.1% lower than they were in April.
“Prices of dairy products climbed by 3.7% from April and by 7.1% from May 2019. The oils and fats index rose by 2.3% from April, recording an annual rise of 8.3%. Margarine prices saw a monthly increase of 3.6%. Peanut butter was 5.8% more expensive in May compared with April, recording an annual rise of 16.3%.
“Decreases were seen across most non-alcoholic beverage products with an overall month-on-month price drop of 2.4%. Prices for hot beverages, such as tea and coffee, fell by 1.9% between April and May, with instant coffee prices in particular declining by 4.2%. Cold beverage prices fell by 2.7% over the same period.
“Provincial annual inflation rates ranged from 1.6% in Limpopo to 2.6% in Western Cape.”
Siphamandla Mkhwanazi, senior economist at FNB Wealth and Investments, said: “For a third consecutive month inflation slowed to 2.1% in May, down from 3% in April. This slowing pace of inflation was mainly driven by the aggressive decline in international oil prices, which in turn meant very low domestic petrol prices.
“In May, petrol prices were down 25% compared to the same period last year.”
Absa economist Peter Worthington said: “The main driver of the slowdown was a 12.6% m/m decline in fuel prices, which was already known. This pushed fuel inflation to -25.9% y/y in May from -12.8% y/y in April, with a 0.6percentage point swing on headline CPI inflation in May alone, given the weight of fuel in the CPI basket.
“The recovery in Brent crude oil prices has been a lot faster than we anticipated.
“Local petrol prices have already risen by 23% from their lows in May and the available daily fuel price recovery data from the Department of Energy point to another increase in early August.”
@MwangiGithahu