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Category: Prices and inflation
Date: 20 June 2019
Date: 20 June 2019
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We take a look at data supplied by Statistics South Africa and compare the average price per 1 litre of milk (long life) per province as well as look at the inflation rate of average milk prices per province from May 2018 to May 2019. Is the average price per 1 litre of milk in various provinces similar across South Africa? And is the rate of inflation of 1 litre of milk different across the various provinces of South Africa?
Note all data from Statistics South Africa |
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Average milk price per province for May 2019
The bar chart below shows the average price per 1 litre of milk (long life) per province in South Africa for the month of May 2019, as measured by Statistics South Africa in the Consumer Price Index (CPI) data.
From the bar chart it is clear that a litre of milk (long life) was the cheapest in Mpumalanga at R14.27 a litre while it was most expensive in the Eastern Cape with a litre of milk setting those living in the Eastern Cape back R14.99. While the difference between the cheapest and most expensive price per litre of milk might not look like a lot, when every single cent counts to people one has to start wondering why the prices charged for the same product is so different across various provinces. Some might argue that storage, transport and the likes play a role we have long wondered about the pricing behaviour of retailers when looking at average prices of various products across provinces, such as our price per kilogram of chuck article
The summary below shows the average price per province, sorted from lowest to highest:
Looking at average prices is always interesting but what about the inflation rate of the average prices over the last year? By how much has the average price of a litre of milk increased or decreased over the course of the last 12 months? The summary below shows the inflation rate for the average price of a litre of milk over the last year, sorted from lowest inflation rate to highest.
So the Western Cape showed the lowest inflation rate in the average price of 1 litre of long life milk with the average price of litre of milk actually declining by-0.3% from May 2018 to May 2019. But on the opposite end of the spectrum Limpopo saw the average price of 1 litre of long life milk increasing by 10.7% from May 2018 to May 2019. Its a MOOsive difference between the various provinces average price of 1 litre of long life milk inflation over the last year.
So the average price per litre of long life milk per province was fairly similar, but the rate of inflation over the course of the last year was vastly different across the various provinces, leading us to wonder again about pricing behaviour and price setting by retailers across various provinces for the same product.
The summary below shows the average price per province, sorted from lowest to highest:
- Mpumalanga: R 14.27
- Gauteng: R 14.28
- Free State: R 14.34
- KwaZulu-Natal: R 14.35
- North West: R 14.35
- Western Cape: R 14.49
- Northern Cape: R 14.66
- Limpopo: R 14.74
- Eastern Cape: R 14.99
Looking at average prices is always interesting but what about the inflation rate of the average prices over the last year? By how much has the average price of a litre of milk increased or decreased over the course of the last 12 months? The summary below shows the inflation rate for the average price of a litre of milk over the last year, sorted from lowest inflation rate to highest.
- Western Cape: -0.3%
- KwaZulu-Natal: 1.6%
- Free State: 2.0%
- Gauteng : 4.2%
- Northern Cape: 4.7%
- Mpumalanga : 5.0%
- Eastern Cape : 5.2%
- North West : 7.9%
- Limpopo : 10.7%
So the Western Cape showed the lowest inflation rate in the average price of 1 litre of long life milk with the average price of litre of milk actually declining by-0.3% from May 2018 to May 2019. But on the opposite end of the spectrum Limpopo saw the average price of 1 litre of long life milk increasing by 10.7% from May 2018 to May 2019. Its a MOOsive difference between the various provinces average price of 1 litre of long life milk inflation over the last year.
So the average price per litre of long life milk per province was fairly similar, but the rate of inflation over the course of the last year was vastly different across the various provinces, leading us to wonder again about pricing behaviour and price setting by retailers across various provinces for the same product.