Surge in food inflation of South Africa last month

Last month saw higher food inflation than expected, the Bureau for Food and Agricultural Policy (BFAP) has reported. South African food inflation came to 6.9% in August (in year-on-year terms), continuing a rising trend that started in February. Last month’s food inflation was 0.2% higher than that for July. And food inflation contributed 1.2 percentage points to August consumer price index headline inflation. The figure of 6.9% was the highest recorded since 2017. The price of the BFAP ‘thrifty healthy food basket’, for a family of two adults and two children, came to R2 939 last month. This was R7.24 higher than its cost in July, an increase of 0.2%. In year-on-year terms, the price increase was R142, or 5.1%. Assuming that the family was earning two minimum incomes as well as receiving child grants and school feeding for the children, the cost of this food basket would have amounted to 29.7% of total family income. (The BFAP thrifty healthy food basket is composed of a ...