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Message: [QUOTE="Queen, post: 88446, member: 27"] A 3% inflation reading for February 2026 handed South African households their lightest price-pressure month since mid-2021. What dragged consumer prices down [LIST] [*]Petrol and diesel got cheaper after global oil dipped. [*]A beefed-up rand against the dollar helped slash pump costs. [*]Staples like maize meal and bread barely budged upward. [*]Meat prices finally leveled off after months of climbing. [/LIST] Grocery bills easing for stretched budgets [LIST] [*]Food-and-beverage inflation dropped to roughly 4.2% year-on-year. [*]Poultry and eggs posted noticeably smaller price jumps. [*]Low-and-middle-income families felt the grocery relief most. [*]Veggie and fruit costs either fell or crawled up. [/LIST] Housing and utility charges cooling off [LIST] [*]Municipal tariff bumps came in softer than early 2025. [*]Electricity hikes landed below last year's brutal increases. [*]Water and sanitation fees stayed mostly flat across municipalities. [*]Overall shelter costs rose at a gentler clip. [/LIST] Some categories still stinging wallets [LIST] [*]Booze and tobacco crept up thanks to excise-duty hikes. [*]Restaurants and hotels passed higher input costs along. [*]Healthcare and education fees outpaced the headline number. [*]Clothing and furniture prices stayed almost dead flat. [/LIST] Reserve Bank rate-cut talk heating up [LIST] [*]Core inflation held steady at 3.8% without volatility. [*]SARB faces growing pressure to trim interest rates. [*]Cheaper debt repayments on home loans could follow. [*]Officials keep repeating they will stay data-dependent, though. [/LIST] What analysts expect through 2026 [LIST] [*]Forecasts peg inflation between 3% and 4.5% all year. [*]Stable oil prices and a steady rand are key assumptions. [*]Late-year electricity tariff spikes remain a real risk. [*]Weather disruptions could still rattle domestic crop output. [/LIST] [/QUOTE]

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