Figures released by Statistics South Africa indicate that the annual consumer price inflation was at 4,9 percent in August 2021, up from 4,6 percent in July 2021.

The largest contributions to the increase in inflation were food and non-alcoholic beverages, housing and utilities, transport, and miscellaneous goods and services.

An economist at Econometrix Laura Campbell says fuel contributed more significantly to the increase in inflation in August.

“It was mainly a function of the fuel inflation rate in the month. We’ve seen statistical effects from the hard lockdown now working their way out of the measurement. Now the high inflation rate in fuel represents the strong increases in pump prices to new highs. There was also a rise in the fuel inflation rate to its highest level since the ending of drought conditions in January 2017.”

Latest CPI figures: