An Economist at Absa bank, Miyelani Maluleke, says while consumer price inflation is expected to ease in January, fuel prices may continue to rise on the back of rising Brent crude oil, which is hovering above $95 per barrel.
This as Statistics South Africa prepares to release the January inflation figures this week.
Maluleke says the annual consumer price inflation is expected to decline to around 5.7% in January after climbing to 5.9% in December 2021 – the highest annual rate since March 2017.
“Going forward, it is important to highlight that higher fuel prices remain a risk for overall inflation here in South Africa. We have seen Brent Crude Oil prices remaining quite elevated in some of the data that we have seen. So far, [our data] do seem to suggest that we could actually see another fuel price increase at the start of March,” explains Maluleke.
Consumer inflation highest since 2017:
