Soaring living costs add over R21,000 a year to household bills
Image: Kampus Production
Even though the increase in the cost of living has slowed substantially over the past year, declining by 2.4 percentage points year-on-year, your average monthly bills will still, in theory, have increased 2.6% between last May and now – adding R21 000 to bills over a year.
However, Numbeo figures show that Johannesburg is among the cheapest cities in which to live, with only Delhi (India) and Rio de Janeiro in Brazil having a lower index.
Statistics South Africa's latest inflation publication, for the May 2025 period, shows that the consumer price index was 2.8% on a yearly basis last month. This compares well with a year ago, when it was 5.2%. However, inflation compounds and items keep going up every month.
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Based on a basket of goods the average South African may be spending their money on each month, and taking compounding into account against the base price, every day items will have cost R1 808 more than a year ago. The figures were worked out using a nifty inflation adjustment calculator.
This is based on the most recent prices for this year, so it doesn't take cost variations into account. Even without historical price data on items such as DSTV Compact Plus not being readily available, the increase amounts to R21 702 over the year.
And that's allowing for lower price hikes of one item offsetting the increase in others somewhat.
It's worse if you smoke or drink – those items on average went up year-on-year by 4.3%. If your weekend party stash of drink cost R1 000 last May, it went up by R43. That, based on advertisements from liquor stores, is worth almost half the cost of a six pack of beer.
Investec economist Lara Hodes breaks down the contributors to May's inflation print. 'Within the food basket, meat price inflation, which holds the highest weighting rose to 4.4% year-on-year from 3% year-on-year in April,' she wrote in a note.
Moreover, Hodes wrote, oils and fats prices increased 5.6% year-on-year, while the price of fruits, nuts, and vegetables jumped between 10.3% and 13.5% year-on-year.
The good news is that the rate of increase in the cost of living was in line with economist's consensus.
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