South Africans must brace themselves for a Christmas without the merry-making as cash-strapped consumers have to grapple with high fuel costs, load shedding, high interest rates and high food and transport costs.
The Department of Energy and Minerals announced new petrol price increases that have shocked many motorists because they are higher than what was expected.
After 12 midnight tomorrow (WED) motorists will 59c more for a litre of both grades of petrol.
A litre of 95 Unleaded petrol will cost R22.81 at the coast and R23.46 on the inland and 93 Unleaded will retail for R23.16.
This comes as the electricity crisis in the country continues with Eskom battling to keep loadshedding at Stage 2 as initially planned and having to upgrade to Stage 3 of rolling blackouts because of breakdowns at power stations, Eskom said in a statement..
As a result of load shedding the economy has lost an estimated R500 Billion since 2018.
On the other side, consumers are hit by food and non-alcoholic beverages increasing by 12 % year-on-year and one of the key drivers is the increased inflation.
According to the latest STATS SA data, bread and cereals, meat and dairy were currently driving high food prices in the country.