IMPROVING LIVES THROUGH DATA ECOSYSTEMS

Digging a little deeper into the latest consumer price data shows how you can make informed choices about your sweet tooth.

If you love to have cake on a regular basis, it might be interesting to know that you are now paying almost 30% more for a cake than you did in June 2010. The average price for a cake then was R36,58. In June 2015, the average price was R47,34, according to data used to compile the latest consumer price index release. It is a sobering thought to think that every rand that you now spend on a cake buys you much less of tasty goodness than it did five years ago.

Of course, the key word to keep in mind here is average. Every month price collectors from Stats SA visit retail outlets around the country to record thousands of prices for items ranging from food and beverages to clothing and household appliances. Cake is one of these items, and the price of R47,34 is a national average of all cake prices collected that month.

If you are now concerned about the price of cake, it might be useful for you to know where prices might be cheapest. Northern Cape is the province to avoid if you are planning to buy a cake any time soon. The data show that the average price for cake in that province was R60,25 in June 2015, R26,44 higher than the R33,81 estimated for Western Cape, which recorded the lowest average price.

If you happen to live in a province where the average price is relatively high, you could consider moving to another province. A cheaper and less drastic alternative would be to switch to a different dessert. Comparing the seven provinces surveyed, the average price for an 80-gram slab of chocolate was relatively low in Northern Cape (R11,81), which is the province with the highest cake prices. Mpumalanga recorded the highest average price of R12,66 for a slab of chocolate.

How about ice cream? A 2-litre tub of ice-cream was relatively expensive in Western Cape compared with the other three provinces where ice-cream prices were collected.

Cake, chocolate and ice cream are three of the 398 items that Stats SA surveys for price data. Over 780 000 prices are collected a year to compile monthly consumer price indices.

Download the latest release here.