Sept. inflation hits 8.6%

• Inflation in August was 7.9%, higher number for last month driven by low price levels in Sept. 2016 

Sri Lanka’s national consumer price inflation in September rose 8.6% from a year earlier, the Department of Census and Statistics said yesterday. 

On a month-on-month basis, consumer prices rose 0.8 percent in September, after dropping 0.1 percent in the previous month. 

The 12-month moving average of inflation, for which data is available since December 2015, accelerated to an all-time high of 6.8% in September, from 6.5% a month ago. 

Issuing National Consumer Price Index (NCPI), for the month of September 2017, Census and Statistics Department Director General Dr. Amara Satharasinghe said that the year on year inflation based on NCPI has been compiled as 8.6%.  

The inflation reported for the month of August 2017 was 7.9%.  For the month of September 2017, the reported increase in inflation is mainly because of the comparatively lower price levels prevailed in September 2016. 

“Contributions to the inflation from food group and non-food group in September 2017 are 6.1% and 2.6% respectively, whilst contributions of these two groups to the inflation in September 2016 were 2.1% and 2.7% respectively reflecting prevailed comparatively lower food prices in September 2016,” the Census and Statistics Department said in its press release.      

However, when compared to month on month changes, NCPI in September 2017 has increased to 123.3 from 122.3 reported in August 2017. This shows an increase of 1.0 index points or 0.8 percentage points in September 2017 compared to August 2017. This month on month change was due to the increases of expenditure value of food items by 0.80% and non-food items by 0.07% respectively.

The increase in expenditure value of food items was due to the price increases in rice, coconuts, red onions, big onions, sugar, limes, banana and papaw. However, decreases in expenditure value in index were reported for vegetables, fresh fish, Mysore dhal, green chilies and garlic.

The increase in expenditure value of non-food items in September 2017 compared to the previous month was due to the expenditure value increases in groups of ‘Alcoholic beverages, Tobacco and Narcotics’, ‘Education’, ‘Clothing and Footwear’, ‘Miscellaneous Goods and Services’ and ‘Furnishing, Household equipment and Routine household maintenance.’  

Further, the group of ‘Housing, Water, Electricity, Gas and Other fuels’ recorded very slight expenditure value increase compared to the preceding month. However, expenditure value decrease was observed for group of ‘Communication’ due to removal of telecommunication levy on internet charges with effect from 01 September, 2017. The expenditure value of ‘Health’, ‘Transport’, ‘Recreation and Culture’ and ‘Restaurant and Hotels’ groups remained unchanged during the month.