Inflation jumps to 21.50% for the first time

By Wealth Trust Securities

The National Consumer Price Index (NCPI base: 2013=100) for the month of March was seen spiking to a high of 21.50% at its announcement yesterday, exceeding 20.00% for the first time in its history and in comparison, to its previous month of 17.5%. The annual average also increased to 10.6% against 9.3%.

Activity in the secondary bond market remained dull yesterday with only the 15.05.2030 maturity changing hands at a level of 21.00%. In secondary bills, July and October 2022 maturities and April 2023 maturity traded at levels of 20.50% to 21.00%, 22.00% and 22.50% respectively.

The total secondary market Treasury bond/bill transacted volume for 19 April 2022 was Rs. 36.74 billion.   

In money markets, the weighted average rates on overnight Call money and Repo remained steady at 14.50% each despite the net liquidity deficit remaining high of Rs. 583.46 billion yesterday. An amount of Rs. 113.36 billion was deposited at Central Banks SDFR (Standard Deposit Facility Rate) of 13.50% against an amount of Rs. 696.81 billion withdrawn from Central Banks SLFR (Standard Deposit Facility Rate) of 14.50%.

All bids received for the 28 day reverse repo were rejected by the Domestic Operations Department (DOD) of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka. 

Forex Market 

In forex markets, limited trades on the USD/LKR cash contracts were seen traded at a level of Rs. 346.60 yesterday while overall activity remained muted.   

The total USD/LKR traded volume for 21 April was $ 43.00 million.  

(References: Central Bank of Sri Lanka, Bloomberg E-Bond trading platform, Money broking companies)