JOHANNESBURG - Inflation has risen to 4%.
The rate at which prices are rising was driven higher by the war-related jumps in fuel prices.
That is a percent more than the new target of 3% and up from 3.1%, but it was not unexpected.
It means indebted consumers are looking down the barrel of an interest-rate hike. The Reserve Bank meets next week.
Director and Chief Economist from Econometrix, Dr Azar Jammine, said this increase was expected.
"Ironically, there were two other factors that played a role. The fuel price increase effect was very much as expected, but food inflation actually fell, medical aid inflation rose, and so those two balanced one another off, and we ended up with a figure very much in line with expectations," he explained.
Jammine said in light of these increases, there's very little doubt that there will be an interest rate hike and possibly more in due course.