South African food inflation continued to decelerate last month

South African food and non-alcoholic beverage (NAB) inflation (hereafter to be referred to just as food inflation, for short) decelerated again in July, in year-on-year (y-o-y) terms, to 4.5%, the Bureau for Food and Agricultural Policy (BFAP) has reported, in its latest Food Inflation Brief. And, for the fifth month in a row, food inflation was below Consumer Price Index (CPI) headline inflation, although only slightly (CPI headline inflation running at 4.5% y-o-y last month). Month-on-month (m-o-m) food inflation in July was zero percent. (M-o-m CPI headline inflation last month was 0.4%.) Regarding background factors that affected local food and NAB prices, last month the rand depreciated against the US dollar by 0.3%, y-o-y, and by 0.9%, m-o-m. The CPI index for “electricity and other fuels” rose 12.1% y-o-y and jumped 11% m-o-m. That for “fuel” showed a 4.5% y-o-y increase, but a -3.6% decrease, m-o-m. Overall, the sector was seeing rising costs in its value chain, noted the BFAP.