{"id":11999,"date":"2019-03-20T10:02:12","date_gmt":"2019-03-20T08:02:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.statssa.gov.za\/?p=11999"},"modified":"2019-03-20T10:03:32","modified_gmt":"2019-03-20T08:03:32","slug":"medical-aid-and-transport-costs-nudge-inflation-higher","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.statssa.gov.za\/?p=11999","title":{"rendered":"Medical aid and transport costs nudge inflation higher"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Consumer inflation edged up slightly from 4,0% in January 2019 to 4,1% in February 2019, remaining firmly within the South African Reserve Bank (SARB) inflation target range of 3%\u20136%. Notable drivers behind the rise were medical insurance and transport costs.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.statssa.gov.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/Pic1.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-12000\" src=\"https:\/\/www.statssa.gov.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/Pic1-300x200.png\" alt=\"Pic1\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.statssa.gov.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/Pic1-300x200.png 300w, https:\/\/www.statssa.gov.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/Pic1-768x513.png 768w, https:\/\/www.statssa.gov.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/Pic1-1024x683.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.statssa.gov.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/Pic1-100x67.png 100w, https:\/\/www.statssa.gov.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/Pic1.png 1275w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Stats SA surveys health insurance fees in February of each year. On average, medical-aid schemes increased their tariffs by 8,3%, slightly higher than the 8,0% average recorded in 2018.<\/p>\n<p>Overall health costs, on the other hand, climbed by 4,3% year-on-year in February 2019. Medical practitioners raised their fees by 5,7% on average, with doctors reporting the highest increase (5,8%), followed by dentists (5,5%) and hospitals (4,5%).<\/p>\n<p>Transport prices climbed by 0,4% month-on-month, underpinned by increases in the price of fuel (0,3%) car rental (7,3%) and tyres (0,8%).<\/p>\n<p>For those planning to buy a car, vehicle prices are 3,5% higher than they were a year ago.<\/p>\n<p>Annual inflation for food and non-alcoholic beverages softened in February 2019, falling to 2,9% from 3,0% in January 2019. Bread and cereal prices continued to climb, however, registering an annual rise of 4,9%. This is in stark contrast to a year ago, when the annual rate for bread and cereals stood at -5,1%.<\/p>\n<p>Month-on-month price increases were recorded for fruit (4,5%), bread and cereals (1,8%), cold beverages (0,9%), other food (0,8%), fish (0,6%) and sugar, sweets and desserts (0,6%).<\/p>\n<p>There was some good news, however. Month-on-month decreases were recorded for meat (-1,5%), hot beverages (-0,9%), vegetables (-0,5%) and oils and fats (-0,1%).<\/p>\n<p>For more information, download the latest Consumer Price Index (CPI) release <a href=\"https:\/\/www.statssa.gov.za\/?page_id=1854&amp;PPN=P0141&amp;SCH=7564\">here.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Similar articles are available on the Stats SA website and can be accessed <a href=\"https:\/\/www.statssa.gov.za\/?page_id=624\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>For a monthly overview of economic indicators and infographics, catch the latest edition of the <em>Stats Biz<\/em> newsletter <a href=\"https:\/\/www.statssa.gov.za\/?page_id=6048\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Consumer inflation edged up slightly from 4,0% in January 2019 to 4,1% in February 2019, remaining firmly within the South African Reserve Bank (SARB) inflation target range of 3%\u20136%. Notable drivers behind the rise were medical insurance and transport costs. Stats SA surveys health insurance fees in February of each year. On average, medical-aid schemes&nbsp; &nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.statssa.gov.za\/?p=11999\" class=\"btn btn-mini btn-info pull-right\" style=\"margin:10px 30px;\">read more &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"clear\"><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30,33],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11999","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-economic-growth","category-inflation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.statssa.gov.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11999","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.statssa.gov.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.statssa.gov.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.statssa.gov.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.statssa.gov.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11999"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.statssa.gov.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11999\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12004,"href":"https:\/\/www.statssa.gov.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11999\/revisions\/12004"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.statssa.gov.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11999"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.statssa.gov.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11999"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.statssa.gov.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11999"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}