CPI for October remains unchanged

South Africa’s consumer inflation for October remained unchanged at 5,9% year-on-year, the same rate year-on-year as that for September.

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This was according to Stats SA figures released on Wednesday.

The figures were in line with consensus forecasts, Laura Campbell, a senior economist at Ecometrix, told Farmer’s Weekly.

“Commodity prices, especially of agricultural food items and crude oil, have declined significantly over the past six to nine months. This is also likely to have contributed towards declining inflationary pressures,” she said.

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Food inflation fell fairly sharply, down to 8% in October, from 8,7% in September and a recent peak of 9,5% in August, in a delayed response to the steep decline in agricultural futures prices of maize and other staple products in the second quarter.

Inflation was likely to remain within the 3% to 6% inflation target range for the foreseeable future, Campbell said.