While it is no secret that South Africa’s poor are the hardest hit by inflation, it seems that people in rural areas are suffering the most.
Looking at a rural shopping basket, a study has found that basic food items have increased between January last year and January this year by 23% in the case of maize meal, 22% for brown bread, 20% for white bread, 15% for beans, 13% for rice and 9% for sugar.
The National Agricultural Marketing Council’s quarterly food price monitor reveals that food prices will continue to rise well beyond inflation targets and notes that rural food supplies were generally more expensive than urban supplies.
Last year, maize meal was R4,01 cheaper in rural areas than in urban areas. This lowered to a difference of R3,84 in 2008. Other differences tracked between the 2007/08 period noted that milk, sugar and margarine had remained cheaper for urban consumers.
The only instances where the trend was reversed and rural costs were, in fact, lower than urban prices was for bread and cooking oil, where white and brown bread in rural areas became, respectively, 1c and 10c cheaper than their urban equivalent.
The South African Reserve Bank has set a national inflation target of 6%, while the monitor has found food prices inflating at 13,4%.
Another survey conducted by Statistics South Africa into household incomes reveals that poor households prioritise spending on food, with 37% of total expenditure going into the area while richer households spent 10% on food.
The survey also found that income in poor households had increased thanks to government grants.