Consumer prices rise 4.3% in August

Reuters: Sri Lanka’s consumer prices rose by 4.3% in August from a year earlier, slowing down from the previous month’s 5.5% growth, data from the Department of Census and Statistics showed on Wednesday.

They had hit a 32-month high of 6.0% in June.

Core annual inflation, which excludes fresh food, energy, transport, rice and coconuts, rose 4.7%, slowing down from the previous month’s 5.8%. It hit a 38-month high of 6.6% in May.

On a month-on-month basis, the Colombo Consumer Price Index (CCPI) fell 1.7% in August, compared with a 0.2% rise in July.

August inflation, as measured on a 12-month moving average basis, touched a 19-month high of 3.1%, compared with July’s 2.7%.