JOHANNESBURG: South Africa's annual inflation fell to 6.0 percent in September, official data showed on Wednesday ahead of the unveiling of the national mid-term budget.
Statistics South Africa said that consumer prices had eased from a 6.4-percent peak in August, thanks in part to a fall in petrol prices.
The drop was in line with economists' expectations, according to Nedbank's Busisiwe Radebe.
"We expected it should drop down to six percent from that 6.4 percent peak we saw in August," Radebe told AFP.
Going into the fourth quarter "we expect the CPI to moderate but not substantially below the six percent upper target range," she said.
Analysts forecast the annual inflation rate for 2013 to average about 5.9 percent, while repo rates are likely to remain unchanged at five percent.
"We expect that the Reserve Bank will keep rates unchanged well into 2014, to balance the still weak growth with inflation that is just below the bank's upper target range," she said.
The inflation announcement comes just hours before South Africa's Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan was due to release his mid-term budget in which he is expected to address the country's current account and budget account deficit.
Low consumer and business confidence combined with weak domestic demand continues to plague growth in Africa's biggest economy, beset by a weak rand and labour strife.
Comments
Comments are closed.