Annual inflation up, year-on-year down

The Colombo Consumers’ Price Index (CCPI) (2002=100), computed by the Department of  Census and Statistics, increased moderately by  0.6%, to 234.8 in May from 233.4 in April 2011.

The year-on-year inflation moved down significantly to  8.8% in May from a high of 9.8% in April 2011, as anticipated. However, inflation on an annual average basis increased to 6.9% in May from 6.6% in the previous month.

Meanwhile, core inflation on a year-on-year basis marginally increased to 4.8% in May 2011 from 4.7% in April 2011 while the annual average rate continued to decrease to 5.0% in May from 5.1% in the previous month.

The contribution to the monthly increase of 0.6% in the Index came mainly from price increases in the sub groups of Food and non alcoholic beverages (0.4%) and Housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels (1.1%).

Within the Food sub category, prices of fish and seafood, condiments such as red onions and limes; and potatoes increased while prices of almost all varieties of vegetables, fruits, green chilies, big onions and eggs declined due to improvements in supply.



Prices in the sub categories of Clothing and footwear (0.8%); Furnishing, household equipment and routine household maintenance (0.9%); Health (0.8%); Transport (0.6%) and Miscellaneous goods and services (0.3%) also increased.

Meanwhile, the prices in the sub categories of Communication, Education and Recreation and culture remained unchanged during the month.