South Africa’s annual inflation rate fell sharply to 4.3% in July, down from 5.0% in June.
According to Statistics South Africa (Stats SA), this was the first decline in headline inflation in five months. The slowdown was mainly driven by lower food inflation, smaller municipal tariff increases and falling fuel prices.
One of the biggest contributors to the decline was food inflation. Inflation for food and non-alcoholic beverages fell to 0.9% in July, its lowest level in more than 16 years. Stats SA said the last time the rate was this low was in June 2010, when it was 0.7%. That was also the month South Africa hosted the FIFA World Cup.
The slowdown was mainly driven by lower prices for cereal products and meat.
Cereal product prices fell by 2.0% year-on-year in July, compared with a 1.5% decline in June.
Some individual products also became cheaper. Maize meal prices fell by 3.1%, while macaroni fell by 0.7% and white bread by 0.6%. The annual rate fell to 1.5% in July, from 5.1% in June.
Some unprocessed beef products recorded lower prices compared with a year earlier. These included:
Stewing beef: -7.9%
Beef steak: -6.1%
Beef mince: -5.8%
However, some processed meat products became more expensive.
These included corned meat (+11.8%), meat patties (+7.8%), Russians (+7.7%) and sausages (+6.2%).
While overall food inflation slowed, some food categories recorded higher annual inflation in July. These included:
Fruits and nuts
Fish and other seafood
Vegetables
Oils and fats
Cold beverages
Milk, other dairy products and eggs
Inflation for oils and fats increased to 2.8% in July, from 2.3% in June.
Municipal tariff increases also eased in July.
Electricity tariffs increased by 8.1%, compared with a 10.4% increase in 2025.
The smaller increase helped reduce pressure on overall inflation.
Lower fuel prices provide relief
Transport inflation also slowed sharply in July.
The annual transport inflation rate fell to 8.9%, from 12.7% in June, mainly because of lower fuel prices. Between June and July, petrol prices fell by 7.1%, while diesel prices fell by 11.7%. This pushed the annual fuel inflation rate down to 20.6% in July, from 34.3% in June. Despite the monthly decline, fuel remained more expensive than a year earlier. Petrol was 19.3% more expensive, while diesel was 28.8% more expensive than in July 2025.
What drove the July inflation decline?
In simple terms, the drop in inflation was largely the result of cheaper food, lower fuel prices and smaller increases in municipal tariffs. Food and non-alcoholic beverage inflation reached its lowest level in more than 16 years, while the sharp decline in transport and fuel inflation also helped bring down the overall inflation rate.
