The SA Reserve Bank is entering a new era with the appointment of Gill Marcus as its governor; she will replace Tito Mboweni when he vacates the post in November. Analysts seem pleased with the announcement, and the SA Chamber of Commerce is welcoming her with open arms. She couldn't be stepping in at a less enviable time though, as the country slips further into recession, so she's got her work cut out for her, but here's wishing her a successful journey... and hoping she'll be able to ease some economic pressures... and a rate cut or two would be rather nice, thank you. But while we dream of falling inflation, it appears as though consumers are bearing the brunt of the fines imposed on the bread and milk industries by the competition regulators. Marianne Wagener, an associate at commercial law firm Deneys Reitz said that questions have been circulating as to whether there is anything stopping those companies, which have been fined for anticompetitive behaviour, from recovering these losses through further price increases. The short answer is "no". Which would explain (to some degree at least) why consumers are still watching their grocery totals rise, despite the drop in inflation and the costs to actually produce the goods. So if it wasn't bad enough that consumers had been forking out more than necessary for everyday foodstuffs before the price-fixing scams were exposed, now they're having to pay even more... And there's nothing to be done about it. Ah, don't you just love the smell of fresh irony in the morning? Of course, there are many people in this country who will have to smell only the irony - because they cannot afford to smell fresh bread. Makes you wonder whether it was worth the fines in the first place...

Shan Radcliffe, Retail editor retailnews@bizcommunity.com Responses to this column welcomed in our new online editor's column archive. Image courtesy of FreeDigitalPhotos.net.