Inflation is Quietly Stealing Your Money

The Headline Number Doesn’t Tell the Whole Story
Over the last decade there has been various changes in the inflation rate in South Africa. In 2015 it was sitting at 4.6%, it went up to around 7% in 2022 before falling back to an average of just 3.2% across 2025, the lowest annual reading in 21 years, according to Statistics South Africa. That progress is real. Yet for most households, a 3.2% headline figure feels almost disconnected from lived experience. The cumulative CPI increase over the past decade amounts to roughly 63%, meaning that a grocery basket which cost R100 in 2015 now costs approximately R163.  That sounds significant, and it is, but many South Africans will tell you it feels even worse than that. They’re not wrong (Stats SA,2026)

May 29 2026 By Christoff van Niekerk