Consumer Price Index up in November

The Department of Census and Statistics (DCS) revealed that the National Consumer Price Index (NCPI) for the month of November 2015 was up 2.6% to 112.0 from October.

It said the change is due to the increase of food items by 2.1% and increase of non-food items by 0.5% respectively.

In a statement issued on the NCPI, Census and Statistics Director General Dr. Amara Satharasinghe said that YoY inflation based on NCPI for the month of November 2015 was calculated as 4.8% and inflation calculated for October 2015 was 3.0%.

The DCS commenced releasing the National Consumer Price Index (Base 2013=100) from October 2015 with a time lag of 21 days.

The increase of food items was mainly due to the price increases in vegetables, green chillies, rice, big onions, potatoes, coconuts, limes, red onions, fresh fish and dried chillies. However slight price decreases were recorded for mangoes, Papaya, chicken, eggs, sprats-dry and banana.

The increase of non food items was mainly due to the increase in commodity groups of transport and miscellaneous goods and services. A decrease was reported for housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels group which primarily resulted from the decline of L.P gas prices.