The latest update on South Africa’s food inflation has shown a further acceleration as the increase in vegetable and meat prices quickened in May.
South Africa’s annual food inflation jumped again by 1.1 percentage points (ppts) from the previous month to 4.4% year-on-year (y-o-y) in May.
However, monthly food inflation slowed to 1.2% month-on-month (m-o-m) in May relative to 1.3% m-o-m in April. Nonetheless, headline consumer inflation remained well contained after a surprising pause at 2.8% y-o-y in May, with the monthly trend still flat and decelerating below 1% at 0.2% m-o-m.
While the fruits and nuts inflation posted the biggest annual increase of 6.2ppts from April to 13.5% y-o-y in May, it fell for the third consecutive month to -1.3% m-o-m, which reflects the current favourable supply situation following excellent seasonal production conditions.
Earlier weather-induced supply constraints with harvest and logistics delays caused a surge in vegetable inflation to 10.3% y-o-y (+5.8ppts) and 5.9% m-o-m (+1.2ppts) in May. The rally in meat prices continued on the back of tight supplies, thus lifting meat inflation by 1.2ppts from April to a 23-month high of 4.4% y-o-y in May. Monthly meat inflation, however, decelerated to 2.3% m-o-m in April to 1.2% in May.
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