Sept. inflation at 6.4%

Thursday, 22 October 2020 04:10 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Headline inflation as measured by the year-on-year change based on the National Consumer Price Index NCPI) has been compiled as 6.4% as against 6.2% in August, the Director General of Census and Statistics revealed yesterday.

DCS said contributions to the inflation rate in September from food group and non-food group were 5.5% and 0.8% respectively, as compared to 2.1% and 2.9% respectively from September 2019, resulting in a headline inflation of 5.0%. With respect to September 2019, the reported increase in percentage of food group was mainly due to higher price levels prevalent in September this year – particularly prices of coconuts, rice, turmeric powder, coconut oil, vegetables and sugar.

Comparing the month-on-month changes, NCPI in September has increased to 138.9 from 137.8 reported in August. This shows an increase of 1.1 index points or 0.8%.

The month-on-month change was contributed to by increases of index values of food items by 0.52% and non-food items by 0.23%.

Price increases of food items were reported for vegetables, coconuts, big onions, fresh fruits, turmeric powder, rice, biscuits, papadam, jak and jak seeds, and rice flour. However, decreases in index values were reported for fresh fish, potatoes, red onions, limes, coconut oil, eggs, green chilies, chili powder and sprats (dry).

The increases in index values of non-food groups in September compared to the previous month was due to the price increases in groups of items ‘alcoholic beverages, tobacco & narcotics’ (arecanuts and ‘bulathwita’), ‘transport’ (motor cars and cost of servicing of vehicles), and ‘miscellaneous goods and services’. Further, very slight price increases were reported in groups of ‘clothing and footwear’, ‘furnishing, household equipment routine household maintenance,’ and ‘recreation and culture,’ while a very slight price decrease was reported in ‘education’ compared to the preceding month. Meanwhile, the price indices of ‘housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels,’ ‘health,’ ‘communication,’ and the ‘restaurants and hotels’ groups remained unchanged during the month.

Core inflation, which reflects the underlying inflation by excluding volatile items in the food, energy and transport groups in the economy, as measured by the year-on-year change based on NCPI for the month of September, has increased to 4.8% from 4.6% in August.