South Africa’s food inflation bucks national trend with 0.8% increase

The rate of inflation for food and non-alcoholic beverages in South Africa saw a 0.8% increase in January, the highest month-on-month increase seen in a year and against an overall fall in the rate of consumer inflation, data from the country’s statistical office revealed Wednesday.

Consumer inflation fell from 4.7% to 4.4% in January, with food and non-alcoholic beverages moving in the opposite direction to 4.5%.

Meat prices remain high and inflation is running at 13.4%, according to Patrick Kelly, the country’s chief director of price statistics, with meat prices increasing 2.3% between December and January.

The move comes as South Africa struggles to deal with a severe drought that has raised fears for the country’s corn crops – a staple of South Africa’s domestic diet.

According to the latest data available from the South African Grain Information Service, corn consumption declined month-on-month between November and December from a total of 936,258 mt in November to 830,513 mt in December, a fall of 11.2%.

In the same time frame of 2016 into 2017, consumption declined by 12.7% as food inflation surged 11.7%, while the previous 2015/16 data shows a fall of only 5.8% in consumption.