Buying power of R1 in 2019

This chart shows a calculation of buying power equivalence for R1 in 2019 (price index tracking began in 1957).

For example, if you started with R1, you would need to end with R1.30 in order to "adjust" for inflation (sometimes refered to as "beating inflation").

When R1 is equivalent to R1.30 over time, that means that the "real value" of a single South African rand decreases over time. In other words, a rand will pay for fewer items at the store.

This effect explains how inflation erodes the value of a rand over time. By calculating the value in 2019 dollars, the chart below shows how R1 is worth less over 5 years.

According to the OECD and the World Bank, each of these ZAR amounts below is equal in terms of what it could buy at the time:

This conversion table shows various other 2019 amounts in today's rand, based on the 29.73% change in prices:

How to calculate inflation rate for R1 since 2019

Our calculations use the following inflation rate formula to calculate the change in value between 2019 and today:

Then plug in historical CPI values. The South African CPI was 121.9872 in the year 2019 and 158.25803574504084 in 2024:

R1 in 2019 has the same "purchasing power" or "buying power" as R1.30 in 2024.

To get the total inflation rate for the 5 years between 2019 and 2024, we use the following formula:

Plugging in the values to this equation, we get:

Data source & citation

» Read more about inflation and investment.