Pretoria: Statistics South Africa has recorded a slight decrease in annual consumer inflation for August, easing from 3.5% to 3.3%. This reduction was primarily driven by a slowdown in fuel and food inflation last month.
According to South African Government News Agency, the monthly consumer price index (CPI) decreased by 0.1% between July and August, with four out of 13 categories in the inflation basket registering monthly declines. These categories included food and non-alcoholic beverages (NAB), furnishings, household equipment and routine maintenance, transport, and information and communication.
The annual rate for food and non-alcoholic beverages edged lower to 5.2% in August from 5.7% in July. A decrease in rates was recorded in cereal products, fish and other seafood, milk, other dairy products and eggs, as well as fruits and nuts, and vegetables. For example, the rate for cereal products retreated from 2.1% in July to 1.5% in August, with some staples becoming cheaper compared to a year ago.
Although beef continues to have high annual rates, the monthly increase in August was the lowest since April. Beef mince recorded a 12-month change of 27.2% and a monthly rise of 0.2%. Stewing beef reached an annual rate of 32.3% while its monthly change was 0.6%. Beef steak prices were 28.6% higher than a year ago but saw a decrease of 1.2% between July and August, attributed to factory-gate inflation of -7.8% in July for beef carcasses.
Furthermore, the price index for milk, other dairy products and eggs declined by 1.1%, marking the lowest annual print since March 2011. Prices for fresh full-cream milk decreased by 2.9% between August 2024 and August 2025.