July inflation slows to 3.3%

Inflation, as measured by the change in the Colombo Consumers’ Price Index (CCPI), reduced to 3.3% in July from 3.8% in June, latest data from the Department of Census and Statistics said.

The CCPI for all items declined marginally in July 2019, to 130.0 from 130.2 in June 2019. A decrease in the index point by 0.18% was due to the expenditure value decrease of Food items by -0.22% and increase of Non-Food items by 0.03%.

The year-on-year (YoY) inflation of Food Group has decreased from -1.0% in June 2019 to -2.6% in July 2019 while that of Non-food Group has decreased from 6.0% in June 2019 to 5.9% in July 2019.

For the month of July 2019, on year-to-year basis, contribution to inflation by food commodities was -0.79%. The contribution of Non-Food items was 4.13%.

The moving average inflation rate for the month of July 2019 remained unchanged from June at 4.2%.