Pretoria | Wednesday
SOUTH African inflation rose to 4,6% in December compared to 4,3% in November, the government’s statistics service noted on Tuesday, blaming the rise on annual increases in food, health, fuel, transport and power prices.
Statistics South Africa said the annual percentage change in the consumer price index CPIX, excluding the interest rate on mortgage bonds, was at 6,5% last month — up from 6,3% in November.
“The main contributors to this 6,5% increase in CPIX were annual increases in food, housing, medical care and health expenses, transport, personal care and fuel and power,” it said in a statement.
South Africa’s central Reserve Bank wants the CPIX figure to be between 3 and 6% for 2002-2003 and between 3 and 5% for the following two years.
The official average annual CPIX inflation rate in metropolitan and urban areas for last year came to 6,6%, down from the 7,8% in 2000.
Stats SA said the official average annual inflation for last year was 5,7%, up from 5,4% in 2000.
In 1999, this figure stood at 5,2%.
The annual rate of increase in food prices rose from 8,5% in November to 11,4% last month.
“This was mainly due to annual increases in the price of meat, milk, cheese, eggs, grain products and vegetables,” the statistics service said. – AFP