South Africa’s official opposition Democratic Alliance says it has taken a lot of time and effort for the CPIX to reach a figure of 5,4% notched up for September.
Acting finance spokesperson Pierre Rabie welcomed this achievement “as it is the first time that the CPIX falls within the Reserve Bank’s inflation target band [of between 3% and 6%]”.
“But while this is certainly good news, we are worried about the impact of South Africa’s growing unemployment rate [up to 40% in some rural areas] and the spread of HIV/Aids,” said Rabie in a statement.
Rabie said millions of South Africans are at risk, with a potential catastrophic impact on South Africa’s socio-economic development.
He said inflation targeting is one of the key measures in ensuring economic development, and it is therefore imperative for the following issues to be addressed if South Africa wants to reach the all-important 4% growth rate in its GDP:
Service providers and those responsible for administered prices should heed the inflation targets when considering tariff hikes;
Rigid labour laws needed to be reformed;
Bureaucratic red-tape needed to be scrapped; and
The “flood” of violent crime needed to be brought to a halt.
I-Net Bridge earlier reported that SA’s CPIX inflation (headline inflation excluding mortgage costs) was up 5,4% year-on-year for metro and other areas in September 2003 compared with 6,3% in August 2003. Statistics South
Africa said on Tuesday CPIX was up 0,2% month-on-month compared with a 0,4% rise in August. — I-Net Bridge