JOHANNESBURG - A new IPSOS survey across 33 countries shows that people expect inflation to keep rising, with wars and global conflict pushing up living costs.
IPSOS South Africa CEO Natalie Otte said South Africans are still struggling with the cost of food, electricity and transport, while unemployment and interest rates add to uncertainty.
"A people perspective, lower inflation doesn't mean that prices are going to go down. It simply means prices stop rising as quickly. And for many South Africans, the increases we've seen in food, electricity, transport and other essentials, they've started getting used to it. They've started building it into their budgets or trying to adapt to it, but people still feel very uncertain about the future.
"What's driving people's sort of uncertainty. And this rising cost of living in their perception is also the state of the global economy, but also policies of my own national government, right? And then especially in South Africa, that's a big one. The interest rate levels in my own country, as well as I said, unemployment is also a big thing, taxes and interest rates. So it isn't just the wars, but that is the main. Main thing coming through at the moment."