Sustained higher oil prices resulting from conflict in the Middle East may fuel inflation in South Africa, though the buffers built by the government should help keep its debt-consolidation plans on track, the finance minister said.
The price of Brent crude has jumped almost 16% this week as shipping flows ground to a halt in the critical Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of the world’s oil transits.
“South Africa is a price taker” when it comes to petroleum imports, Enoch Godongwana said in an interview on Bloomberg Television.
“That will have an inflationary impact for us. So the war is worrying.”
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