Annual consumer inflation remained unchanged at 5.7% in February, Stats SA said on Wednesday.
The main contributors to the inflation rate were food and nonalcoholic beverages, housing and utilities, transport, and miscellaneous goods and services.
Food and nonalcoholic beverages increased by 6.4% year on year, and contributed 1.1 percentage points to the total consumer price index (CPI) annual rate of 5.7%.
Housing and utilities increased by 4.4% year on year, also contributing a 1.1 percentage point to overall inflation.
Transport increased by 14.3%, contributing 1.9 percentage points while miscellaneous goods and services increased by 3.2% year on year.
Data shows the annual inflation rate for goods remained unchanged at 8.1%, unmoved from January, while the inflation rate for services decreased to 3.1%, down from 3.4% in January.
Stats SA said after decreasing steadily for eight months, annual bread and cereal inflation jumped to 3.7% in February from 1.5% in January. This category includes grain-based foods made from wheat, rice and maize.
The monthly change was also significant. Prices climbed by 2.4% between January and February, representing the biggest monthly increase for this category since the beginning of 2019.
A number of bread and cereal products registered large monthly increases, most noticeably staples such as maize meal, up by 3.7% and white bread up by 3.2%. In rand terms, a loaf of white bread was on average 69c more expensive in February than in January, up to R16.16 from R15.47.
Other products with large price increases include ready-mixed flour and cake flour, pasta, porridge, macaroni and brown bread.
Stats SA said price movements in the bread and cereals category will be closely watched in the near future as the focus remains on the war in Ukraine and its effect on grain supply.
The agency warned that a fish and chips dish may have become more expensive too. Fish recorded a sharp rise, increasing by 2.3% between January and February. Within this category, tinned fish (excluding tuna) and frozen fish fingers recorded the largest monthly increases, Stats SA said.
Fuel prices increased by 2.9% in February after softening in January.
The price of inland 95-octane petrol climbed by 53c from January to reach R20.14/l, just shy of the record high R20.29/l reached in December.
Large monthly price increases were recorded for public transport services, in particular air fares, up 7.3%, and car rental, up 15.0%.
Health costs also increased. Stats SA conducts an annual survey of private sector doctor and dentist fees in February. The agency said health prices increased by 4.9% in the 12 months to February. Prices for general practitioners also increased by 5.6% while the prices for gynaecologists and physicians increased by 4.5%. Dentist prices increased by 4.7%.
The insurance category registered a monthly change of 1.3%, mainly due to an increase in health insurance (up 1.8%). However, not all health insurance companies change their prices during February. Stats SA will also capture these prices in April, May and September.
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