South Africa Inflation Rate Steady at 3.2%

2025-03-19 08:19 By Kyrie Dichosa 1 min. read

South Africa’s inflation rate held steady at 3.2% in February 2025, its highest in four months but still well below the South African Reserve Bank's 4.5% midpoint target.

Inflation accelerated for food and non-alcoholic beverages (2.8% vs. 2.3% in January), mainly due to higher costs of unprocessed foods, fruits, nuts, and vegetables; while price growth eased slightly for housing and utilities (4.4% vs. 4.5%).

This was offset by a sharp slowdown in personal care and miscellaneous services inflation (1.1% vs. 5.9%) and continued deflation in transport (-0.5% vs. -0.2%), driven by an ongoing decline in fuel costs.

Meanwhile, core inflation—which excludes food, non-alcoholic beverages, fuel, and energy—fell to 3.4%, its lowest since December 2021.

On a monthly basis, CPI jumped 0.9%, the highest in a year, picking up from 0.3% in January.



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