Inflation quickens to 10-month high on fuel prices

South African inflation accelerated to the highest level in 10 months in July, driven by higher fuel prices.

Consumer prices rose 5.1% from a year earlier compared with 4.6% in June, Pretoria-based Statistics South Africa said Wednesday in a statement on its website. That matched the median estimate of 16 economists in a Bloomberg survey.

While inflation has now been inside the central bank’s target band of 3% to 6% for more than a year, Governor Lesetja Kganyago has said the Monetary Policy Committee prefers price-growth expectations at 4.5% to limit the need for policy tightening. The five-year breakeven rate, a measure of traders’ inflation expectations, rose to the highest level in almost two months last week as the rand tumbled to the weakest level against the dollar since June 2016.

The price of gasoline was 25% higher in July than a year earlier as the rand slumped. Excluding fuel prices, inflation would’ve been 4.3% last month.

The MPC held its benchmark repurchase rate at 6.5% interest rate in July, citing the currency as a risk to the price outlook.

The rand weakened 0.3% to 14.44 per dollar by 10.04 am in Johannesburg.