Housing prices & utilities biggest contributor to inflation's rise in December - Stats SA

JOHANNESBURG - The price of housing and utilities were the biggest contributors to the rise in inflation rates in the December period.

Statistics South Africa released the latest figures on Wednesday, revealing that the average inflation for last year was 4.4%

This is the second consecutive month that consumer price inflation has increased.

Stats SA's Patrick Kelly said that housing was a big contributor because rental rates increased.

"The largest component within housing are rentals and what we call owners equivalent rent which measures the cost of living and owning your own house. We measure these quarterly and rentals went up by 2.8% and owners equivalent rent went up to 2.4%."