Rise in Year on Year Inflation

The Department of Census and Statistics released Colombo Consumer Price Index data for the month of February which showed a year on year increase of 6.2 percent in the index.

Year on Year inflation of Food Group has increased from 12.4 percent in January 2020 to 14.7 percent in February 2020 while that of Non-food Group has decreased from 2.9 percent in January 2020 to 2.8 percent in February 2020. 

The moving average inflation rate (percentage difference between the average PriceIndex of last 12 months & the average Price Index of the previous 12 months) for the month of February 2020 was 4.6 percent. The corresponding rate for the month ofJanuary 2020 was 4.5 percent.The contribution of Non Food items was 2.03 percent. This was mainly due to increasesin value change in groups of ‘Transport’ (0.73 percent), ‘Housing, Water,Electricity, Gas and Other Fuels’ (0.54 percent), ‘Education’ (0.37 percent),‘Restaurants & Hotels’ (0.20 percent), ‘Miscellaneous Goods and Services’ (0.18 percent), ‘Alcoholic Beverages Tobacco and Narcotics’ (0.15 percent), ‘Clothing and Footwear’(0.15 percent), ‘Furnishing Household Equipment’s & RoutineHousehold Maintenance’ (0.02 percent) and ‘Recreation and Culture’ (0.03 percent)and decrease in value change was reported for the group ‘Communication’ (0.32 percent). However, an insignificant value change was reported for the group of‘Health’.

There was no month on month inflation between January and February. The CCPI for all items for the month of February 2020 was 134.6 and it records no change in index point and percentage point compared to the month of January 2020 for which the index was 134.6.This represents a decrease of expenditure value by Rs.3.39 in the “Market Basket”. Expenditure value decrease of Fooditems by 0.07 percent and increase of Non Food items by 0.06 percent respectively.