---
title: "Cost of living — SA CPI accelerates to 5.3% in January but slowing food inflation brings relief"
description: "South Africa’s consumer price index rose to 5.3% in January from 5.1% in December. This lowers the prospect of the South African Reserve Bank cutting rates in the near future. But hard-pressed consumers can take some solace in slowing food inflation."
type: "NewsArticle"
publisher: "Daily Maverick"
site: "https://www.dailymaverick.co.za"
section: "A SERVING OF SOLACE"
author: "Ed Stoddard"
author_url: "https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/author/ed-stoddard/"
canonical_url: "https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2024-02-21-slowing-food-inflation-brings-relief-as-sa-cpi-accelerates-to-5-3/"
published: "2024-02-21T11:54:13"
updated: "2024-02-23T11:24:32"
lang: "en-ZA"
word_count: 357
---

# Cost of living — SA CPI accelerates to 5.3% in January but slowing food inflation brings relief

> South Africa’s consumer price index rose to 5.3% in January from 5.1% in December. This lowers the prospect of the South African Reserve Bank cutting rates in the near future. But hard-pressed consumers can take some solace in slowing food inflation.

By Ed Stoddard · Published 21 February 2024, 13:54 SAST · Updated 23 February 2024, 13:24 SAST

## Key points
- South Africans are feeling the pinch as wining and dining prices soar, but the silver lining is a potential rebound in tourism and a slowdown in food inflation, although fuel prices continue to fuel the fire, leaving consumers to brace for the long haul of high interest rates until the Reserve Bank sees fit to make a move.
- Stats SA reports annual price increases in CPI basket: restaurants and hotels up 8.0%
- Wining and dining cost rising, signaling economic rebound and strong tourism demand
- Food and health prices also climb annually, with fuel prices driving inflation
- Food inflation slows to 7.0%, offering slight relief to consumers amidst uncertain crop outlooks

## Content

Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) said the biggest annual price increases in the consumer price index (CPI) basket were restaurants and hotels at 8.0%.

Wining and dining is becoming pricier but this is actually a good sign for the wider economy since it points, among other things, to a rebound in tourism, which [Stats SA said last month](https://www.statssa.gov.za/?p=16949) had reached pre-pandemic levels. There is clearly some demand out there for wining and dining.

The other big annual price climbs were food and non-alcoholic beverages at 7.2%, and health at 6.5%.

Fuel prices are also still fuelling South African inflation. “... a monthly decline of 5.2% in fuel prices between December and January was not enough to subdue the annual rate for fuel, which jumped from -2.5% in December to 3.3% in January,” Stats SA said.

![(Stats SA’s Consumer Price Index via Outlier Insights)](https://cdn.dailymaverick.co.za/i/ixTSnOgsFhCvEGeypIuaDrC4inI=/200x100/smart/filters:strip_exif\(\)/file/dailymaverick/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/outlier-za-cpi-237.png)

*(Stats SA’s Consumer Price Index via Outlier Insights)*

The silver lining is food inflation excluding non-alcoholic beverages, which slowed to 7.0% in January from 8.5% in December.

This will be a partial relief to hard-pressed consumers who will likely have to contend with high interest rates for longer. The Reserve Bank is unlikely to begin cutting before the overall CPI number is closer to its 3% to 6% target range, or before the [US central bank starts trimming](https://www.reuters.com/markets/rates-bonds/fed-cut-us-rates-june-risks-skewed-towards-later-move-2024-02-20/), which is unlikely before June.

Global food prices have been cooling, but there is still fuel in the pipeline that could reignite domestic food inflation.

Optimism about South Africa’s summer crop, including the staple maize, has faded in recent weeks amid reports of crop damage in some of the western regions of the grain belt because of scorching temperatures and a dearth of rain in the face of the El Niño weather pattern.

According to Wandile Sihlobo, chief economist at the Agricultural Business Chamber of South Africa, and other observers, supplies should be adequate but the bumper harvest previously anticipated may not materialise without good rains in the next couple of weeks. This in turn will have implications for food inflation.

But for now at least food inflation is slowing and not taking such a big bite out of constrained household incomes. **DM**