South African consumer inflation has been generally been lower than the inflation of all domestic goods and services produced in the economy (as measured using the GDP deflator). Interestingly, the opposite has been true for about half of the major economies considered in the chart below. In the aftermath of the COVID pandemic, the gap between South African consumer inflation and the GDP deflator has been larger still. One possible reason the CPI has understated inflation in many countries following the pandemic is that it likely does not fully capture changes in spending patterns.
Footnote
When one includes Norway, Russia and Argentina the chart looks like this:
