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Annual consumer inflation cooled to 6.9% in January, from 7.2% in December. This is the third consecutive month of a decline. But food inflation hit the highest rate since 2009.
The consumer price index (CPI) declined by 0.1% between December and January, Statistics SA reported.
Cheaper fuel helped to tame some prices, with petrol prices back to levels last seen in March 2022.
Still, food prices continued to race ahead. Food and non-alcoholic beverages inflation hit 13.4% in January - the highest level since April 2009.
Vegetables saw the biggest hike, with prices up more than 5% between December and January.
Bread and cereal prices were 21.8% higher than a year before. In a single month (from December to January), the prices of pizzas and pies rose by 3.6%, while maize (+3.1%) and brown bread (+1.3%) also saw large hikes.
Meat prices increased to 11.2% in January from the year before – from 9.7% in December.
Statistics SA reports that individually quick frozen chicken portions, which have the biggest weighting in the meat basket, rose by 2.7% in January from the previous month. Bacon prices were 19.4% more expensive than the year before, while fish prices rose 13% - the highest annual price increase since May 2009.
Inflation reached a 13-year high in July last year, hitting 7.8%. To cool inflation, the Reserve Bank has aggressively hiked interest rates. The monetary policy committee is meeting at the end of March to decide whether another hike is required.