South Africa’s middle class households are about to be pelted by another flurry of price hikes—adding to the financial pressures already in the mix.
South African households are heavily in debt and are running out of lifelines for money to make it through the month.
According to the latest Eighty20 Credit Stress Report, middle-class workers—households with an income of nearly R25,000 a month or aDebt levels are the highest for the middle class, at 79% of income going to instalments, up by nearly 28% in just over two years. Nedbank’s analysis of the situation attributed this to salaries and incomes for households in South Africa declining in real terms due to high levels of inflation, while persistently high interest rates add even more pressure to those in debt—which is almost everyone.Inflation is steadily coming down and should be at the Reserve Bank’s mid-point target in 2025. Food inflation, in particular, has eased to satisfactory levels .
Special interest group AfriForum has approached the courts to try and block municipalities from hiking electricity rates, alleging that the appropriate cost studies have not been conducted.
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