Please see attached PACSA’s latest monthly food price barometer for May 2015.  The PACSA monthly food price barometer tracks the price of a basket of 36 basic food items from six different retail stores servicing the lower-income market in Pietermaritzburg, KwaZulu-Natal. The basket serves as an index for food price inflation and provides insight into the affordability of food and other essential household requirements for working class households in a context of low wages, social grants and high levels of unemployment. 

The May 2015 PACSA Monthly Food Price Barometer headlines Food price inflation for working class households up 6.5% since January 2015.  The May 2015 statement provides a snapshot of the trends in food price inflation since January 2015.  Over the last five months, the cost of the total PACSA food basket increased by 6.5% or R101.95 from R1568.25 in January 2015 to R1670.20 in May 2015.  The core drivers of inflation on the PACSA food basket were the starches (increased by 7.8%), animal proteins (increased by 7.1%), vegetables (increased by 11%) and sugar (increased by 8.7%).  All four of these groups increased by levels significantly higher than CPI headline inflation – which averaged 4.3% over the last five months; as well as above the CPI indicator for food and non-alcoholic beverages, which averaged 5.7% over the last five months.

The attached PACSA monthly food price barometer publication consists of (1) a media statement; (2) the food price and affordability data; and (3) background notes on the figures used in the calculations and about PACSA.

The annual and monthly PACSA Food Price Barometer can be accessed at www.pacsa.org.za.

Issued by PACSA