Author: Alastair Otter
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SA is embracing hybrids, but all-electric and plug-in sales lag
South Africans are slowly warming to hybrid vehicles but not to fully electric or plug-in hybrids. More than 6,000 hybrid vehicles were sold in 2023, 10 times the number sold in 2021. That is still just a fraction of the approximately 350,000 traditional internal combustion engine (ICE) passenger vehicles sold every year. FULL STORY +…
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100 days of keeping the lights on signals improved power stability for SA
With just 83 days of loadshedding in South Africa so far this year, 2024 is on track to be one of the best years for reduced power cuts. Fuelling the optimism is the announcement last week that Kusile’s unit 5 was now in operation, adding 800MW to the grid.
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SA’s low-cost housing programme on shaky ground
Just 42,773 government-subsidised houses were built in South Africa in the 2023/24 financial year. That’s an 82% decline compared with the 235,635 houses built 26 years ago in 1998/99. About 10% of government-subsidised houses were recorded as having weak walls and roofs, according to Statistics SA’s 2023 General Household Survey. Mpumalanga and the Western Cape had…
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Copper hits new highs as demand, including for renewables, soars
Copper prices have hit new highs over the past month as demand for the metal grows and experts predict a shortage in years to come. Copper is a key material in sectors including telecoms, power generation and construction. It is used in wiring for broadband networks and for transformers and generators in the power production…
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ZA inflation steadies
Annual consumer price inflation was unchanged at 5.2% in May in line with some expectations, Statistics SA reported on Wednesday. The annual inflation rate of goods last month was 5.7%, unchanged from April, and for services, it was 4.7%, up from 4.6%. Food and non-alcoholic beverages inflation remained steady at 4.7% in May, unchanged from…
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Nigerians face crippling food price increases
Nigerians are facing steep increases in food prices as inflation figures hit record highs. In May 2024 food inflation increased to 40.66%, an almost 16 percentage point increase on the May 2023 inflation rate of 24.82%, Punch reports. Headline inflation (covering all consumer goods) increased to 33.95% according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).…