South African headline consumer price inflation accelerates year-on-year in October

South African annual consumer price inflation data for October was released today. According to Statistics South Africa, the headline inflation accelerated to 5.1 percent on a year-on-year basis in the month from September’s 4.9 percent. Meanwhile, on a sequential basis, the consumer price index rose 0.5 percent, unchanged from the prior month and in line with consensus expectations.

Consumer price index, excluding food and NAB, fuel and energy came in at 4.2 percent year-on-year and 0.1 percent sequentially. Food and alcoholic beverages saw a rise of 3.4 percent year-on-year, while it rose 0.2 percent sequentially. The index for alcoholic beverages and tobacco rose 4.2 percent year-on-year.

Transport index rose 10.5 percent year-on-year and 2.6 percent sequentially, positively contributing 1.2 percentage points to the headline index. The rise in this index was mainly driven by fuel, which rose 6.1 percent. Meanwhile, the index for miscellaneous goods and services came in at 5.4 percent year-on-year.

The CPI for goods accelerated to 5.1 percent year-on-year from September’s 4.8 percent, whereas for services it slowed marginally to 5.1 percent from prior month’s 5.2 percent.