Sri Lanka’s Consumer Price Index Shows Varied Inflation Trends in November

According to the Department of Census and Statistics (DCS), Sri Lanka observed a notable upswing in its year-on-year inflation, with the Colombo Consumer Price Index (CCPI) registering a rise from 1.5% in October to 3.4% in November.

The DCS’s latest report delineated a divergent trend in inflation for food and non-food categories. In November, year-on-year inflation for the food group saw an increase to -3.6% from October’s -5.2%. Conversely, the non-food group experienced a surge in inflation, rising to 6.8% from October’s 4.9%.

The report highlighted that in November, food commodities contributed -1.20% to inflation, while non-food items contributed 4.5%. This shift was primarily attributed to substantial increases in value change within various groups, including housing, water, electricity, gas, other fuels, education, clothing, footwear, alcoholic beverages, tobacco, narcotics, recreation, culture, health, and miscellaneous goods and services.

However, certain categories witnessed a decline in value change, including furnishing household equipment, routine household maintenance, restaurants, hotels, and transport. The group of communication reported a marginal price increase during the month.

The CCPI serves as a pivotal economic indicator for measuring inflation, calculated based on the percentage change in the CCPI over the year. Typically, two widely used measures of inflation are the year-on-year base (or point-to-point inflation) and ‘moving average inflation,’ which compares the average price index of the last 12 months with that of the previous 12 months.