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Johannesburg - South Africa's headline consumer inflation quickened to 6.4% year-on-year in August, above market expectations of 6.2% and compared with 6.3% in July.
However, on a month-on-month basis CPI slowed to 0.4% from 0.8% in July.
Core inflation, which excludes the prices of food, non-alcoholic beverages, petrol and energy, edged higher to 5.8% from 5.7%, but slowed to 0.3% month-on-month from 0.5% in July.
"On average, prices increased by 0.4 percent between July 2014 and August 2014," Statistics SA said in its key findings.The food and non-alcoholic beverages index rose 0.8% in August compared to the previous month. The annual rate increased to 9.4% in August from 8.8% in July 2014.
Components of the food and non-alcoholic beverages index that increased were hot beverages (2.1%), milk, eggs and cheese (1.5%), sugar sweets and desserts (1.1%), meat (1%), vegetables (0.7%) and cold beverages (0.5%).
Other components of the index that rose were bread and cereals (0.2%), fruit (0.2%) and other food (1.7%). Fish decreased by 0.4%.
The transport index rose by 0.4% between July and August this year.
"The provinces with an annual inflation rate lower than or equal to headline inflation were Western Cape (6.4 percent), Gauteng (6.4 percent), Northern Cape (6.3 percent) and Free State (6.3 percent)."
Provinces with annual inflation rates higher than headline inflation were North West (6.9%), Limpopo (6.9%), Eastern Cape (6.7%), KwaZulu-Natal (6.7%) and Mpumalanga (6.5%).
