Durban – The trade union, United Association of South Africa (UASA), says food and fuel prices are expected to keep money tight over the holiday season, therefore workers planning to take to the road this December should consider putting away extra money so they can still enjoy a well-earned break.
In a statement, UASA spokesperson Abigail Moyo said that the slight decrease in the annual inflation rate to 7.5% in September from 7.6% in August, as reported by Statistics SA on Wednesday morning, is to be welcomed.
Moyo said that although Stats SA reports that food price increases are cooling down, the slight Consumer Price Index (CPI) decrease does not reflect the actual cost-of-living ordinary workers are subjected to, particularly regarding fuel, food and non-alcoholic beverages.
She said that the main contributors were food and non-alcoholic beverages, housing and utilities, transport, and miscellaneous goods and services. The price of food and non-alcoholic beverages increased by 11.9% year-on-year and contributed 2.0 percentage points to the total CPI annual rate of 7.5%.
“As fuel prices decreased at the beginning of September, the annual fuel price inflation rate fell to 34.1% from a high of 56.2% reported in July. Unfortunately, this will be short-lived as fuel prices are set to increase sharply again in November,” Moyo said.
“Workers planning to take to the road this December should consider putting away extra money so they can still enjoy a well-earned break.”
Daily News