Sri Lanka’s overall rate of inflation measured by Colombo Consumer Price Index (CCPI) on year-on-year basis has increased to 4.0% in December from 3.4% in November.

Meanwhile, food inflation increased to 0.3% in December 2023 from -3.6% in November 2023, the Census & Statistics Department (DCS) said in its latest release.

Meanwhile, the year-on-year inflation of the non-food group dropped to 5.8% in December from 6.8% in November.

For the month of December, the contribution to inflation by food commodities was 0.10%, while the contribution of non-food items was 3.90%. The DCS said this was mainly due to the increases in value change in groups of housing, water, electricity, gas & other fuels, education, clothing & footwear, alcoholic beverages, tobacco & narcotic, recreation & culture, health and miscellaneous goods & services. 

A decrease in value change was reported for the groups of transport, furnishing household equipment and routine household maintenance, restaurants and hotels and health. Further, a very slight price increase was reported in group communication during the month.

The CCPI is an economic indicator constructed to measure inflation which is defined in percentage change in the CCPI over the year. There are two measures of inflation in general use. One measure is the year-on-year base or point-to-point inflation (the percentage change in the CPI during the last 12 months). The other measure is ‘moving average inflation’ (the percentage difference between the average price index of the last 12 months and the average price index of previous 12 months).

Colombo Consumer Price Inde... by Adaderana Online