THANDI XABA
The annual Consumer Price Index inflation dropped to 4,4% last month from 5,3% in December 2014. This is the lowest it’s been since April 2011 when the CPI stood at 4,2%.
The decline is due to a decrease in petrol prices and food, to which food inflation also went down from 7,4% in December last year to 6,6% January.
Economist Alex Smith says they anticipated a larger decline of 4,3% and the drop will continue into the coming months.
According to Stats SA the 127cents per litre drop in the price of petrol last month contributed to the decline in the CPI, while the main driver of the declining food inflation was vegetables at 1% for January 2015 against 4,9% in December last year.
On a month-to-month basis the prices of food and non-alcoholic beverages increased by 0,9%.
