Latest news with #consumerinflation
Zawya
6 hours ago
- Business
- Zawya
Meat, vegetable price surge pushes South Africa's food inflation to 4.4% in May
The latest update on South Africa's food inflation revealed a further acceleration, as vegetable and meat prices increased in May 2025. South Africa's annual food inflation jumped again by 1.1 percentage points from the previous month to 4.4% year-on-year in May 2025. However, monthly food inflation slowed to 1.2% month-on-month in May relative to 1.3% m/m in April 2025. Nonetheless, headline consumer inflation remained well contained after a surprise pause at 2.8% year-on-year in May 2025, with the monthly trend still flat and decelerating below 1% at 0.2% month-on-month. Fruit and nuts inflation sees mixed movement While the fruits and nuts inflation posted the biggest annual increase of 6.2 percentage points from April to 13.5% year-over-year in May, it fell for the third consecutive month to -1.3% month-over-month, which reflects the current favourable supply situation following excellent seasonal production conditions. Earlier weather-induced supply constraints with harvest and logistics delays caused a surge in vegetable inflation to 10.3% year-on-year (+5.8 percentage points) and 5.9% m/m (+1.2 percentage points) in May 2025. The rally in meat prices continued on the back of tight supplies, thus lifting meat inflation by 1.2ppts from April to a 23-month high of 4.4% year-on-year in May 2025. Monthly meat inflation, however, decelerated to 2.3% month-on-month in April and to 1.2% in May 2025. We are not surprised at this development as prices at the producer level surged across the livestock complex, with average class A beef carcass prices breaching the R70/kg level for the first time in history. Prices accelerated despite the disease outbreaks that have now complicated the price outlook and the domestic supply dynamics. Foot-and-mouth disease outbreak tightens supply The foot‑and-mouth disease (FMD) outbreak is now in full swing, resulting in an export ban and a quarantine of affected establishments. The quarantine has created a short supply crunch due to the inability to slaughter. Further, the constrained import supplies due to avian influenza (AI)-induced ban on South Africa's biggest poultry meat supplier, Brazil, elicited further upside for prices, particularly the mechanically deboned meat (MDM), which is used in the manufacturing of products such as polony, etc. SA is a net importer of MDM due to a lack of domestic capacity. Meanwhile, the bread and cereals inflation continued to surprise on the downside after decelerating to 4.5% y/y and only nudging 0.1 percentage points from April to 0.4% month-on-month in May 2025. It is apparent that the lag effect of supply shock and the consequent spike in grain prices in the past eight months did fully materialise. Globally, food inflation as per the United Nation's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) decelerated sharply by 2 percentage points from April to 6% y/y in May 2025 as declines in cereal, vegetables, and sugar prices more than outweighed gains in the animal protein categories (dairy, meat). Strong global demand boosted the monthly bovine, ovine, and pig meat prices, which advanced by 1%, 8.3%, and 2.3% month-on-month, respectively, in May. Animal protein prices diverge globally However, global pig meat inflation remained in deflationary mode for the fourteenth consecutive month at ‑0.4% year-on-year while bovine and ovine meats were sharply higher by 11.8% and 29.7% year-on-year, respectively. AI hammered the poultry market as import bans from some countries and the subsequent oversupply forced a reduction in quotations from Brazil. Poultry meat came in at -0.8% month-on-month but accelerated to 3.3% year-on-year in May from 2.6% year-on-year in April. On a parting note, the combination of a renewed rand exchange rate appreciation and a decent summer crop harvest outlook poses a downside risk to most agriculture commodities for the year ahead. Further, meat prices are increasingly surging into consumer resistance territory and may not sustain these levels for a longer period, given the timid economic growth and subdued consumer buying power. Nonetheless, the continued downside at the pump, with fuel falling by 14% year-on-year, as well as a flat to lower interest rate outlook, bodes well for consumer financial recovery for the remainder of the year. All rights reserved. © 2022. Provided by SyndiGate Media Inc. (
NHK
13 hours ago
- Business
- NHK
Higher rice prices driving up Japan's CPI
High rice prices continued to drive up consumer inflation in Japan in May. The country's staple crop more than doubled in price for the first time compared to the same month a year earlier. The internal affairs ministry says the 101.7 percent jump in the price of rice was the highest since the government started keeping comparable data in 1971. It was 3.3 points higher than in April, extending a record for the eighth straight month. Consumers in Japan have continued to pay more for popular rice-based dishes. Onigiri rice balls were up over 19 percent and restaurant sushi rose more than 6 percent. Overall, Japan's Consumer Price Index, excluding prices for fresh food, rose 3.7 percent in May from a year earlier. That's two-tenths of a percentage point higher than in April, and it was the sixth straight month of a reading of 3 percent or above.
Bloomberg
17 hours ago
- Business
- Bloomberg
Japan's Prices Climb by Most in Two Years Ahead of Election
Japan's key consumer inflation measure accelerated to a fresh two-year high as Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba gears up for a summer election and the Bank of Japan mulls the country's price trajectory. Consumer prices excluding fresh food quickened for a third month to 3.7% from a year earlier in May, according to a Ministry of Internal Affairs release Friday. That's the fastest pace since January 2023 and above the 3.6% median estimate of economists surveyed by Bloomberg.
Reuters
4 days ago
- Business
- Reuters
South Korea to introduce second extra budget for this year
SEOUL, June 16 (Reuters) - South Korea's government will introduce a second supplementary budget for the year on Thursday, after passing a 13.8 trillion won ($10.13 billion) budget in May, to support an economy weighed down by U.S. tariffs and sluggish consumer demand. The budget plan will include spending to help the recovery of people's livelihoods and will be taken up at a cabinet meeting, a spokesperson at the presidential office said on Monday. President Lee Jae-myung, who took office on June 4, has argued for expansionary fiscal policy and cash-like handout schemes to boost consumer demand, as the country's central bank last month slashed this year's economic growth outlook to 0.8%, nearly half the previous 1.5%. Among specific measures, spending to ease the burden of rising food prices will be included in the plan, Acting Finance Minister Lee Hyoung-il said at a separate meeting on inflation. At the meeting, the government decided to extend tax breaks on oil products by two months to the end of August, in response to a surge in oil prices amid heightened geopolitical tension in the Middle East. Financial support and import quota increases were introduced to stabilise rising food prices, which President Lee Jae-myung said were causing "too much pain", while tax cuts on car purchases were extended until the end of the year to support the auto industry. South Korea's consumer inflation weakened to a five-month low of 1.9% in May, below the central bank's medium-term target of 2% and market expectations, as petroleum prices dropped 2.3% from a year earlier, but prices of processed food products jumped 4.1% and dining services rose 3.2%. ($1 = 1,362.7000 won)
Reuters
04-06-2025
- Business
- Reuters
Ghana consumer inflation slows to 18.4% year-on-year in May, stats agency says
ACCRA, June 4 (Reuters) - Ghana's consumer inflation slowed to 18.4.% year-on-year in May compared with 21.2% a month earlier, the country's statistics agency said on Wednesday.
