More for the bank and the tank, less for everything elseHigher interest rates and fuel prices are swallowing more and more of household budgets.
Adriaan Kruger Adriaan Kruger · 2 Oct 2026, 04:00
Weaker discretionary spending will hurt businesses and weigh on economic growth, particularly because consumer spending has been supporting the SA economy. Image: AdobeSstockWeaker discretionary spending will hurt businesses and weigh on economic growth, particularly because consumer spending has been supporting the SA economy. Image: AdobeSstock
The usual calculations of how much consumers will have to pay on their mortgages, car instalments and credit cards, and how much more it will cost to fill their cars with fuel, do not come close to describing the impact of the latest interest rate increase and the coming rise in fuel prices.
Lee Naik, chief executive and regional president of TransUnion Africa, calculates that the recent 25-basis-point increase in interest rates is expected to raise monthly repayments on a R1 million home loan by about R160 to R170, while repayments on a R2 million home loan could increase by around R320 to R340.
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“A consumer financing a R400 000 vehicle could see repayments increase by approximately R65 per month.
“Although relatively modest in isolation, these additional costs arrive at a time when households are already contending with high living expenses and tighter budgets,” he says.
However, this tells only half the interest rate story, as this is the second rate hike this year.
The South African Reserve Bank also hiked rates by 0.25% in May. Since then, a household with a R2 million mortgage and another R1 million in vehicle and other debt will be paying nearly R1 000 more a month.
Over the past year, fuel prices have also increased sharply. In November 2025, petrol and diesel were hovering around R20 a litre – set to increase to nearly R30 per litre at the beginning of October.
The Central Energy Fund (CEF) daily calculation of the basic fuel price shows that the price of 95 octane petrol is set to rise by R3.12 a litre next week and that of higher quality diesel by R3.13 per litre.
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The usual calculation of how much a motorist will pay to fill a 65-litre tank – another R200 – might not seem too bad … but much worse is another calculation, using November 2025 as the starting point.
Motorists will be paying about R650 more for the same tank of fuel than they did less than a year ago
