South Africa’s consumer price inflation slowed at a faster-than-expected pace in August, after accelerating in the previous five months, figures from Statistics South Africa showed Wednesday.
The consumer price index rose 4.6 percent year-over-year in August, slower than the 5.0 percent climb in July. Economists had expected the inflation to ease to 4.8 percent.
Prices of food and non-alcoholic beverages grew 4.3 percent in August from a year ago and that for clothing and footwear went up by 5.3 percent. At the same time, transport costs dropped 0.7 percent.
On a monthly basis, consumer prices showed no variations in August, following a 1.0 percent rise in the preceding month. Economists had forecast a 0.2 percent slight increase for the month.
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