Inflation declines to 2.1% in August

The inflation in August determined by the National Consumer Price Index (NCPI) decreased to 2.1% from 4.6% in July 2023 on a year-on-year basis.

The Department of Census and Statistics said the NCPI for all items for the month of August 2023 is 201.9.  The month-on-month change was contributed by decreases in food items of 0.56% and increases in non-food items of 0.60%.

Year-on-year inflation of the food group decreased to 5.4% in August 2023 from 2.5% in July, while the year-on-year non-food inflation reduced to 9% in August from 10.9% in July 2023.

Contributions to the inflation rate of August 2023 from food group and non-food group are -2.56% and 4.73% respectively.

Sri Lanka’s overall inflation peaked in September 2022 to 73.3% and the food inflation increased to 85.8%. However, following policy decisions taken by the Government and the Central Bank, core inflation has come down substantially in the past few months.