The Department of Mineral and Petroleum Resources announced reductions in the cost of petrol and diesel, reflecting lower global oil prices.
However, while the cuts provide welcome relief, they recover only a small portion of the consecutive monthly fuel hikes between March and June, leaving fuel prices substantially higher than they were at the start of the year, according to debt counselling service Debt Rescue.
“Unlike temporary fuel price volatility, sustained increases in food, electricity, transport and municipal charges permanently reshape monthly household budgets, forcing many households to reduce discretionary spending, exhaust available savings and increasingly rely on credit simply to maintain essential living expenses,” said Neil Roets, CEO of Debt Rescue.
Roets added: “Consumers often underestimate how quickly international events reach the household budget.”
He further warned: “As food consumes an increasingly larger share of household income, financial resilience deteriorates rapidly. This has a disproportionate impact on lower-income households, where food already accounts for a significantly larger share of monthly expenditure. It forces families to make impossible sacrifices in basic nutrition, which ultimately affects health, wellbeing and long-term financial resilience.”