Inflation's got a lot to do with the price of eggs

16 February 2017 - 09:04 By BusinessLive
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Inflation, as measured by the consumer price index, moderated to 6.6% in January from December's 6.8%. This was better than the economists' consensus of 6.7%.

The change in CPI is the key measure used by the Reserve Bank's monetary policy committee to set interest rates.

The index, which was reset to 100 points in December, came in at 100.6 points for January, Statistics SA reported yesterday. After falling back under the Reserve Bank's ceiling of 6% in August, inflation steadily accelerated for four months to peak at 6.8% in December.

The food component of CPI showed inflation of 11.8% in January from the same month in 2016. The highest inflation in Stats SA's basket of goods used to calculate CPI was sugar, sweets and desserts whose average price rose 21.4% over the year.

Bread and cereal inflation moderated to 17%. Average meat prices increased 8.9%, fruit 11.2% and vegetables 4.7%.

The only item in the basket whose price dropped was telecommunications, which became 11.3% cheaper, taking overall communication deflation to 0.4%.

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