South Africa 2024 inflation lowest in four years

THE GUARDIAN

South Africa’s annual inflation rate for 2024 dropped to 4.4 percent, the lowest level since 2020, the national statistics bureau announced Wednesday.

While monthly consumer inflation increased slightly in December to 3.0 percent from 2.9 percent the previous month, the annual rate fell from the 2023 figure of 6.0 percent, it said.

“Inflation in 2024 was the lowest in four years since the pandemic in 2020, when the average rate was 3.3 percent,” it said in a statement.

South Africa, Africa’s most industrialised country, is the continent’s leading economy, according to the International Monetary Fund.

Its 2024 inflation rate is within the central bank’s target of 4.5 percent.