{"id":13127,"date":"2020-03-18T09:59:48","date_gmt":"2020-03-18T07:59:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.statssa.gov.za\/?p=13127"},"modified":"2020-03-18T10:01:50","modified_gmt":"2020-03-18T08:01:50","slug":"inflation-edges-up-to-46","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.statssa.gov.za\/?p=13127","title":{"rendered":"Inflation edges up to 4,6%"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>South Africa\u2019s annual inflation rate nudged up to 4,6% in February from January\u2019s 4,5%, inching past the 4,5% midpoint of the South African Reserve Bank\u2019s monetary policy target range. The last time the inflation rate was above the midpoint was in November 2018 when the rate was 5,2%.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.statssa.gov.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/mar_2020_fig1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-13128\" src=\"https:\/\/www.statssa.gov.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/mar_2020_fig1-300x201.jpg\" alt=\"mar_2020_fig1\" width=\"300\" height=\"201\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.statssa.gov.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/mar_2020_fig1-300x201.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.statssa.gov.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/mar_2020_fig1-768x516.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.statssa.gov.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/mar_2020_fig1-1024x687.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.statssa.gov.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/mar_2020_fig1-100x67.jpg 100w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The monthly shift in consumer prices \u2013 the change from January 2020 to February 2020 \u2013 was 1,0%. This is the highest monthly increase since February 2017 when the rate was 1,1%. A rise in food and non-alcoholic beverage prices and medical insurance fees were notable contributors to the 1,0% increase.<\/p>\n<p>The annual rise in food and non-alcoholic beverages was 4,2%, higher than the 3,7% recorded in January. Annual bread and cereals inflation slowed from 6,0% in January to 4,8% in February. Annual meat inflation increased from 2,4% to 4,1%.<\/p>\n<p>In February, Stats SA surveyed the prices of medical insurance, as well as the fees charged by private-sector medical practitioners and hospitals. Medical aid fees increased by 9,0% over the last year. This is higher than that recorded in 2019 (8,3%) and 2018 (8,0%), but lower than the figure recorded in 2017 (9,8%).<\/p>\n<p>Doctors\u2019 fees are 5,1% more expensive than they were a year ago. Dentists\u2019 fees have increased by 4,8% and hospital fees by 3,9%.<\/p>\n<p>Prices for medicines are surveyed every month. Medical products recorded an annual increase of 6,4%. Pain killers are 10,2% more expensive than they were a year ago and vitamin prices have increased by 9,1%.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/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\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><sup>1 <\/sup>Medical aid costs are classified under insurance, and the rest under health.<\/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 Stats Biz newsletter <a href=\"https:\/\/www.statssa.gov.za\/?page_id=6048\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>South Africa\u2019s annual inflation rate nudged up to 4,6% in February from January\u2019s 4,5%, inching past the 4,5% midpoint of the South African Reserve Bank\u2019s monetary policy target range. The last time the inflation rate was above the midpoint was in November 2018 when the rate was 5,2%. The monthly shift in consumer prices \u2013&nbsp; &nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.statssa.gov.za\/?p=13127\" 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":7,"featured_media":13129,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,33],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13127","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-economy-data-stories","category-inflation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.statssa.gov.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13127","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\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.statssa.gov.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13127"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.statssa.gov.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13127\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13132,"href":"https:\/\/www.statssa.gov.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13127\/revisions\/13132"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.statssa.gov.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13129"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.statssa.gov.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13127"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.statssa.gov.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13127"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.statssa.gov.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13127"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}