South Africa's inflation shows slight dip, but food prices remain unchanged

South Africa's annual inflation rate fell slightly in January to 6.9% from 7.2% the previous month, but food prices continued to rise, the country's statistics agency StatsSA said Wednesday.

"The main contributors to the annual inflation rate of 6.9% were food and non-alcoholic beverages, housing and utilities, and transport," StatsSA said in a statement.

In particular, vegetable prices rose sharply, at 5.2% between December and January. Bread and cereal prices rose by 22.1% in January compared to a year earlier and meat by 11.2%.

Inflation had reached an all-time high in the country of 7.8% in July, fuelled as elsewhere in the world by the war in Ukraine. In an attempt to curb the trend, the South African central bank has repeatedly raised its main policy rate, now at 7.25%.

The central bank expects inflation to slow to 5.4% in 2023, with GDP growth weak at just 0.3%.