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The latest industry data suggests that food prices in South Africa will be increasing soon. Here’s what has caused the unsavoury inflation for our groceries.

f we’re not paying over the odds for our petrol, we’re being asked to fork out more for our groceries. Data shared by economist Wandile Sihlobo and the Consumer Price Index (CPI) suggests that food prices are on the rise above inflation, after a relatively quiet start to 2019.

Food prices set to increase in South Africa
The year-on-year inflation rate had reached 2.3% for the first four months of the year. But May has shown a 0.5% increase, bucking the recent trends. According to Sihlobo, this will affect the total price of a normal food shop.

“After stabilizing at 2.3% on a year-on-year basis for four months, South Africa’s food inflation edged up to 2.8% in May 2019. This increase is broad-based across the food basket, with the exception of fruits, vegetables and sugar
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To be blunt, SA does not have a rosy image as an investment destination. One does not have to look further than the WEF’s annual Global Competitiveness Index (CPI). In the 2006/2007 report, SA was ranked 45 out of 125 countries. Since then, SA has been slithering down the index, reaching 67 out of 140 countries in the 2018 report.

The country’s downward trajectory was hastened by poor rankings in health (mainly HIV/Aids and tuberculosis), information and communication technology adoption, skills (educational quality), the number of days it takes to start a business, institutions (crime, police services, public trust in politicians, diversion of public funds, efficiency in government spending, irregular payments and bribes, business costs of crime and violence), and infrastructure (quality of electricity supply). These are all areas under direct control of the government.

It is difficult to imagine how anyone could sugar-coat our rankings in the 201
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