Inflation & Prices

South African Inflation Slowing to 3.8% Backs Rate Cut Bets

  • Inflation rate fell to lowest level in more than three years
  • Traders are pricing in a quarter-point cut next month
Shoppers at a mall in central Johannesburg.Photographer: Leon Sadiki/Bloomberg
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South Africa’s inflation rate fell below 4% for the first time in more than three years, bolstering the case for policymakers to continue cutting rates.

Consumer prices rose 3.8% in September from a year earlier, compared with 4.4% in the prior month, Pretoria-based Statistics South Africa said Wednesday in a statement on its website. That matched the median of 15 economists’ estimates in a Bloomberg survey.