What is this?

SA Inflation Calculator tracks 391 products across South Africa using official Stats SA data. We take the dense CPI spreadsheets and make them visual, accessible, and shareable.

Think of it as a price leaderboard for SA — updated monthly, mobile-first, built to be shared on WhatsApp.

Data Source

All data comes from Statistics South Africa's Consumer Price Index (P0141), published monthly. We use the COICOP 2018 8-digit Excel file containing index numbers for 391 individual products.

• Base period: December 2024 = 100
• History: January 2008 to present
• Products: 391 items across 13 divisions
• Updated: ~20th of each month when Stats SA publishes

Methodology

Year-on-Year (YoY): Percentage change between the same month this year and last year. If bread's index was 100 in Jan 2025 and 101.5 in Jan 2026, that's +1.5% YoY.

Month-on-Month (MoM): Percentage change from the previous month.

Heat Rating:

• 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥 ≥ 20% YoY
• 🔥🔥🔥🔥 ≥ 10% YoY
• 🔥🔥🔥 ≥ 5% YoY
• 🔥🔥 ≥ 2% YoY
• 🔥 > 0% YoY
• ❄️ ≤ 0% YoY (deflation)

AI Disclosure

Some commentary and product blurbs on this site are AI-assisted, generated using Pi at build time. All AI-generated copy is reviewed by a human before publishing. The data itself is never AI-generated — every number traces directly to Stats SA.

Attribution

All basic data sourced from Statistics South Africa. Stats SA has copyright on the data but permits use with attribution. We are not affiliated with Stats SA.