Inflation Calculator (South Africa) ☆ Stoor

What this is actually measuring

The Consumer Price Index (CPI) tracks the average cost of a fixed basket of goods and services South Africans typically buy — food, housing, transport, and so on. When Stats SA says inflation was 5% for a year, they mean that basket cost 5% more at the end of the year than at the start. This calculator uses the same index to work out what an amount of money from one year is worth in another, in today's buying power.

It is a national average. If your own spending leans heavily on something that rose faster than the basket average — private school fees, medical aid, electricity — your personal inflation has likely run ahead of this number. If it leans the other way, you may have felt less of it.

Why the number can look extreme over decades

Inflation compounds. A "modest" 6% a year barely feels like anything month to month, but run it for 30 years and prices roughly six times over. That's not a calculation error — it's what happens when a small percentage repeats for a long time, which is exactly why this tool exists: the compounding is easy to underestimate by eye and easy to see once it's laid out.

One honesty note about pre-2009 comparisons

Stats SA changed how it compiles the CPI in January 2009, and the index only covered South Africa's primary urban areas before then, versus all urban areas afterward. Stats SA linked the two periods into one continuous series, which is what makes a comparison across that boundary possible at all — but it means a value from, say, 1995 and a value from 2020 are being measured on baskets that aren't perfectly identical. The gap is real but usually small next to the sheer scale of decades of compounding.

Frequently asked questions

Why does this differ from an online inflation calculator I've seen before?

Most likely a different base period or a different source series. This tool uses Stats SA's own published index directly, on one consistent base, rather than chaining together separately reported year-on-year percentages — chaining compounds small rounding differences over a long enough period.

Can I use this to check if my salary has kept up?

It's a reasonable starting point — put your salary from a past year into "Amount" and see what it would need to be today just to match inflation, then compare that to your actual current salary. Just remember it's checking against the national basket, not your specific cost of living.

Does this predict future inflation?

No. It only measures what has already happened, using published historical data. Nobody — including this calculator — can tell you what inflation will be next year.

How current is the latest figure?

Stats SA publishes CPI monthly, roughly a month behind. The most recent year shown here uses the latest published month rather than a full-year average, and the page states which month that is.

Put it to work

If inflation is eating into a cash balance sitting still, see what a return that beats it actually needs to look like with the savings calculator, or check where you stand overall with a financial health check.

Source: Statistics South Africa, CPI headline index (publication P0141), base December 2024 = 100. General information, not financial advice.