June CPI up 0.2 pct, core up 0.2 pct

(Reuters) - Food prices advanced 0.5 percent in June, continuing a string of increases. They contributed 17 percent to the overall CPI increase in the first half of this year. Energy prices were down 0.5 percent last month, but the Labor Department said for the first half of this year, they advanced at a 27.8 percent seasonally adjusted annual rate and accounted for about 48 percent of the advance in the overall CPI.




Ex-food, ex-energy prices were up 2.2 percent from the same time a year ago, this was in line with expectations. The overall CPI was up 2.7 percent from a year ago, slightly more than the 2.6 percent advance economists were expecting.


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S.Africa unit labour costs at 5.9 pct in Q4 - c.bank

(Reuters) - South Africa's unit labour costs increased by 5.9 percent year-on-year in the fourth quarter of 2006 compared to a revised 5.2 percent in the previous quarter, the central bank said on Thursday.

Changes in nominal labour costs normally precede or coincide with changes in consumer price inflation, where the main CPIX gauge targeted by the Reserve Bank accelerated to an annualised 6.3 percent in April, breaching a 3-6 percent target.


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