South Africa: Inflation hits 14-month high in April
Consumer prices rose 0.67% in April over the previous month, down slightly from the 0.68% rise seen in March and marking the softest increase in prices since January. Looking at the details of the release, the reading largely reflected higher price pressures for food and non-alcoholic beverages, housing and utilities, as well as for transport.
Inflation came in at 4.4% in April, which was up from March’s 3.2%. April’s figure represented the highest inflation rate since February 2020. Annual average inflation rose to 3.1% in April (March: 2.9%). Core inflation rose to 3.0% in April from the previous month’s 2.5% increase.
Commenting on the outlook for inflation, Andrew Matheny, economist at Goldman Sachs, reflected:
“We expect headline inflation to increase further to around 5%yoy in May on base effects in fuel prices and to peak at that level, before declining to 4% in 2021H2. Meanwhile, we see core inflation peaking close to current levels before declining to around 2.7% in 2021H2. We maintain our forecast for headline inflation of 4% in 2021, and we expect it to decline to 3.6% in 2022.”