By Kopano Gumbi
PRETORIA (Reuters) – South Africa’s statistics agency has updated its consumer inflation basket for the first time since 2022, including items like rosé wine, air fryers and streaming services to reflect changes in spending habits.
Patrick Kelly, head of price statistics at Statistics South Africa, said it was difficult to gauge what impact the update would have on upcoming inflation releases given subtle shifts in the weighting of some items.
Consumer inflation currently sits at the bottom of the central bank’s target range, which has allowed it to cut interest rates at its last two meetings. Another rate cut is expected this week.
The update involved adding 71 products to the basket, removing 53 and reorganising 29 through merging, splitting or reclassification, the statistics agency said on Tuesday.
There are now 391 items in the basket, down from 396 previously.
Housing and utilities, food and non-alcoholic beverages, and transport continue to have the biggest weightings in the basket.
Statistics South Africa’s Kelly said the weight of the food and non-alcoholic beverages category had risen while it had fallen for housing and utilities, suggesting the overall impact on headline inflation was likely to be muted.
The changes were informed by the results of a 2022/23 household income and expenditure survey.
The survey showed real average annual household income fell to about 204,000 rand ($10,900) in 2023 from 206,000 rand in 2015.
It also highlighted persistent racial disparities more than three decades after apartheid ended, with more than 45% of Black African households spending less than around 25,000 annually, showing they experience the worst financial constraints.
($1 = 18.6665 rand)
(Reporting by Kopano Gumbi; Editing by Alexander Winning and Christina Fincher)
