In January, Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) increased the weight of food and non-alcoholic beverage (NAB) prices in the calculation of the country’s Consumer Price Index (CPI) inflation, the Bureau for Food and Agricultural Policy (BFAP) has pointed out. The share of food and NAB prices in these calculations was increased from 17.14% to 18.23%.

This reweighing of the basket of goods and services used by Stats SA to calculate consumer inflation was a process that happened periodically, to reflect the changes in consumer buying habits over time. This latest revision was the result of the 2022 Stats SA Income and Expenditure Survey, which was released last year.

In addition to increasing the weight of food and NAB in overall inflation calculations, Stats SA also changed the composition of the basket of goods used to calculate food and NAB inflation. The BFAP noted that 71 products had been added to this basket, while 53 had been removed, and 29 had been reorganised, through splitting, merging or reclassifying them. There were now 391 products in this basket, whereas previously there had been 396.

Among cereal products, basmati rice and sorghum meal had been added to the basket, while “other pasta” and ready-mix flour had been removed. In the meat category, no products had been removed, but meat bones, boerewors, Vienna sausages, Russian sausages, meat patties, chicken nuggets and chicken strips had been added. With fish, there had also been no removals, but the additions were crumbed fish, and frozen shrimps and prawns. Under milk, other dairy products and eggs, parmesan cheese had been added but condensed milk, cream and flavoured milk had been removed. Oils and fats saw the addition of butter and olive oil, and nothing removed. In the category “other foods”, garlic, honey, ready-made meals, and natural herbs and spices had been added, while the items removed were canned vegetables, frozen potato chips, coffee beans, and drinking chocolate.

Within the food and NAB basket, some food groups had had their weighting increased, while others had theirs lowered. These new weightings were calculated in 2023, but only released last year. (The previous weightings had been calculated in 2019 and released in 2022.)

The food groups which had their weighting increased were (in the order listed by the BFAP) cereal products (now 4.14; the previous rating was 3.16), eggs (0.49, up from 0.40), oils and fats (0.82, previously 0.45), fruits and nuts (0.62, up from 0.33), vegetables (1.74, previously 1.27), and sugar and sugar-rich foods (0.92, up from 0.58). The contribution of “other food” was increased to 1.24 from 1.16. The weighting of fish and other seafood increased only marginally, to 0.43 from 0.40.

Those food groups that saw their weightings reduced were meat, dairy products, and NAB. Meat went from 5.42 in 2022 to 5.10 now. Dairy fell from 2.53 to 1.83. And NAB declined from 1.84 to 1.39.