One country, three very different inflation stories.
Synthetic decile Decile One tenth of households when sorted by expenditure. D1 is the poorest 10%, D10 the wealthiest. Each decile has a slightly different spending pattern, so each feels inflation differently. -group inflation rates built by re-weighting Plutocratic re-weighting A method that reweights each CPI division by a specific group's spending share (rather than the national average), giving a group-specific inflation rate. group YoY = Σ (division YoY × group weight) the 13 national CPI CPI — Consumer Price Index Stats SA’s Consumer Price Index. The official measure of how much the prices of a representative basket of goods and services bought by South African households have changed over time. Published monthly by Stats SA. division CPI division One of the 13 top-level categories Stats SA groups the basket into (e.g. Food & non-alcoholic beverages, Housing & utilities, Transport). YoYs YoY % — Year-on-Year change The percentage change in a price index compared with the same month one year ago. The standard way to read inflation. YoYₜ = (valueₜ ÷ valueₜ₋₁₂ − 1) × 100 against each group's spending basket CPI basket The fixed list of goods and services Stats SA tracks each month. Each item has a weight reflecting how much an average household spends on it. ( Stats SA Stats SA Statistics South Africa — the national statistical agency that publishes the monthly CPI release on which this dashboard is built. IES 2022/23). The middle-income band (D4–D7) is the anchor for the affordability-gap Affordability gap The difference (in percentage points) between two groups' inflation rates. Positive = the focus group is feeling inflation more than the comparator. cards below.
Sparkline shows the YoY% history from 2009 onwards. Pre-2025 values are back-filled by re-weighting the 13 national CPI division YoYs against each decile's basket (the same plutocratic re-weighting used for the headline number); 2025 onwards reads the stored snapshot.
Positive = middle class is feeling inflation more than the country overall.
Positive = middle class is hit harder than wealthy households.
Positive = middle class is hit harder than low-income households.
Pick a focus and a comparator.
The dashed lines show each group's YoY%; the bars show the focus minus the comparator in percentage points (positive = focus group hit harder).
Each decile's history, side by side.
Year-on-year inflation rate per decile. Toggle deciles in the legend to focus the comparison.