Inflation dips to 8.4% in Nov.

Friday, 22 December 2017 00:01 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Inflation has declined to 8.4% in November year-on-year as against 8.8% during the previous month according to the Department of Census and Statistics.

Director General of Census and Statistics Dr. Amara Satharasinghe said the reported inflation for November 2017 was mainly due to the comparatively lower price levels that prevailed in November 2016, particularly the prices of coconuts, rice and vegetables.

Contributions to inflation from the food group and non-food group in November 2017 are 6.9% and1.5% respectively, whilst contributions of these two groups to the inflation in November 2016 were 0.7% and 3.4% respectively, resulting in headline inflation of 4.1% which reflects the comparatively lower food prices in November 2016.

However, when compared to month-on-month changes, NCPI in November2017 has increased to 126.4 from the 124.8 reported in October 2017. This shows an increase of 1.6 index points or 1.3 percentage points in November2017 as compared to October 2017. This month-on-month change was due to the increases of expenditure value of food items by 0.95% and non-food items by 0.30% respectively.

The increase in the expenditure value of food items was due to the price increases of coconuts, green chillies, vegetables, big onions, red onions, rice, eggs and tea dust. However, decreases in expenditure value were reported for fresh fish, banana, potatoes, papaw, limes, mangoes, dried fish, mysore dhal and coconut oil.

The increase in expenditure value of non-food items in November 2017 compared to the previous month was due to the expenditure value increases in the groups of Health, Miscellaneous Goods and Services, Recreation and Culture, Transport, Clothing and Footwear, Furnishing, Household equipment and Routine household maintenance and Housing, Water, Electricity, Gas and Other fuels.

Further, the group of Restaurant and Hotels recorded very slight expenditure value increase compared to the preceding month. However, there was a decrease in expenditure value reported for the group of Alcoholic beverages, Tobacco and Narcotics. The expenditure value of the Communication and Education groups remained unchanged during the month.