Wholesale prices unchanged in August as drop in energy prices offsets costlier food

Companies paid the same amount for wholesale goods last month as a drop in energy prices offset higher food costs.Excluding the volatile food and energy categories, core wholesale prices edged up 0.1 percent, the smallest increase in three months. The figures indicate that inflation pressures are easing. The leveling off is good for cash-strapped consumers, Daco said, because it puts less pressure on businesses to raise their prices. That could increase consumers’ purchasing power.The Producer Price Index, which measures price changes before they reach the consumer, was unchanged in August, the Labor Department said Wednesday, after a 0.2 percent rise in July.In the past 12 months, the index has increased 6.5 percent, mostly due to higher gas and food costs. That’s the smallest 12-month rise...

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More technical work needed to define SA’s shale gas framework

The exploitation of shale gas in South Africa could be a "game changer" for the gas sector, a senior Department of Energy (DoE) official said on Tuesday. But he also appealed for patience to allow a Department of Mineral Resources (DMR) task team to finalise its investigation into the issue of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, and its appropriateness to the South African setting.A moratorium has been imposed on the issuance of exploration licences for unconventional gas in the arid Karoo region and in mid-August Mineral Resources Minister Susan Shabangu extended the moratorium by a further six months to allow for further policy and technical reviews.Speaking at the fourth natural gas conference in Johannesburg, deputy director-general responsible for hydrocarbons and energy planning Tseliso...

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