June’s inflation figure is now back below the upper limit (6%) of the South African Reserve Bank’s monetary policy target range and the rate in June is the lowest reading since October 2021, when the rate was 5.0%.

The annual inflation rate for goods was 6.3%, down from 8.0% in May and for services it was 4.5%, down from 4.6% in May.

Food and non-alcoholic beverages prices also cooled for the third month in a row from 14% in March to 11% in June and most food categories saw slower price growth, with some products actually becoming cheaper as the average price of a 750 ml bottle of sunflower oil was R35.57 in June, from almost R44 a year ago.

Stats SA also reports that prices for sugar, sweets and desserts rocketed from 11.9% to 16.4% in the year to June and prices for brown sugar (+17.4%), white sugar (up 17.1%) and chocolate slabs (up 16.2%) saw the biggest hikes while wine (9.4%) and beer (+5.5%) prices also saw sharper increases.

Of the 12 main categories covered by the consumer price index (CPI), six saw a drop in annual inflation, five saw an increase, and one remained unchanged.

Actual rents jumped from 2.5% in March to 2.7% in June, whilst the annual rate for imputed rents increased from 2.7% to 2.9% over the same period.

The CPI also incorporated the most recent quarterly survey of housing rents.

On a quarter-on-quarter basis, imputed rents rose by 1,2% between March 2023 and June 2023, which is the largest quarterly increase since September 2018, when the rate was also 1.2%.