School costs skyrocket
Inflation softens but individual categories rise
Headline inflation in SA softened for March, but the price of education, particularly high school, has experienced the largest increase since the start of the 2020s.
According to Stats SA, headline inflation dropped from 5.6% in February to 5.3% in March.
The statistics body said that the rate had held its ground between 5% and 6% since September 2023.
The monthly change in the consumer price index (CPI) was 0.8% in March lower than the 1% increase in February.
The categories with the highest annual price changes in March were miscellaneous goods & services (up 8.5%), education (up 6.3%), health (up 6%) and housing & utilities (up 5.9%).
Education fees are only surveyed in March each year.
The 6.3% rise exceeded the 5.7% increase in 2023 and the highest since 2020 when the rate was 6.4%.
High schools saw the largest significant increase (up 7.3%), followed by primary
schools and tertiary institutions (both up by 5.9%).
Crèches and university boarding were also surveyed in March, increasing by 6% and 8.2%, respectively.
The increase in miscellaneous goods & services was mainly driven by higher health insurance premiums, recorded by Stats SA in February. The average price of health insurance increased by 12.9% in 2024,” Stats SA said.
“The 6% annual rise in the health index was driven by increased prices of medical products and
medical services.”
Inflation for food and nonalcoholic beverages slowed from 6.1% in February to 5.1% in March.
This is significantly down from the recent peak of 14% in March 2023 and the lowest annual increase since September 2020, when the rate was 3.8%.
Bread & cereals registered a softer annual print of 5% compared to February’s 6,1%
far lower than the high of 21.8% in January 2023.
Meat inflation also dropped in March due to lower beef and mutton prices.
The annual rate for meat in March was 0.8%, well below the recent peak of 11.4% in February 2023.
That said, the annual inflation for sugar, sweets and desserts was 17.8%, having remained above the 15% for half a year.
Products with the largest annual price increases include brown sugar (up 22%), white sugar (up 20.1%), chocolate slabs (up 17.9%) and chocolate bars (up 15.9%).
Stats SA said that the inflation for alcohol & tobacco was due to an annual increase in excise taxes, increasing by a monthly 1.9% the largest monthly rise since the same period last year. Prices increased by 4.5% overall in the year to March.
Housing rents were also surveyed in March and rose by 0.8%.
Transport jumped by 2% between February and March due to a monthly rise of 5.3% in fuel prices.