South Africa's consumer price index excluding mortgage rate changes (CPIX) for metro and other areas, which is used by the South African Reserve Bank (Sarb) for its inflation target, is up 5.0 percent year-on-year (y/y) in November after a 5.0 percent y/y increase in October, Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) says.
CPIX is down 0.1 percent month-on-month (m/m) after it increased by 0.1 percent m/m in October.
Headline consumer prices - the 12-month rate of change in the consumer price index (CPI) for metropolitan areas - is up 5.4 percent y/y in November from a 5.4 percent y/y increase in October.
The core inflation rate, which excludes volatile foods, municipal rates and monetary policy changes, is up 3.4 percent y/y in November from an increase of 3.3 percent in October.
Consumer inflation excluding interest on mortgage bonds (CPIX) - the measure used by the South African Reserve Bank (Sarb) for its inflation target - is expected to increase to 5.2 percent, an I-Net Bridge survey of 10 economists found.
All of the economists surveyed expected a year-on-year increase in CPIX after it had receded to 5.0 percent in October from 5.1 percent in September. Forecasts ranged from 5.2 percent y/y to 5.5 percent y/y, with 60 percent of the economists surveyed expecting CPIX inflation to reach 5.2 percent in November.
The Sarb inflation target range is from 3 percent to 6 percent y/y and November is the sixth consecutive month that CPIX has been above the mid-point of the target range.
Before this, only five releases were above the mid-point of this range since January 2004.
Headline inflation - the percentage change in the consumer price index (CPI) - was expected to have increased to 5.7 percent y/y. Forecasts ranged from 5.6 percent to as high as 6.0 percent.
A year ago CPIX was at 3.7 percent and CPI at just 3.4 percent.
Stats SA said the annual increase of 5.0 percent in the CPIX for the historical metropolitan and other urban areas was mainly due to relatively large annual contributions in the price indices for food (+2.3 percentage points), housing, excluding interest rates on mortgage bonds (+0.6 of a percentage point), medical care and health expenses (+0.6 of a percentage point), education (+0.4 of a percentage point), fuel and power (+0.3 of a percentage point), transport (+0.3 of a percentage point), alcoholic beverages (+0.2 of a percentage point), household operation (+0.2 of a percentage point) and personal care (+0.2 of a percentage point).
from Business Report here
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