The overall rate of inflation as measured by the Colombo Consumer Price Index (CCPI) on a year-on-year (YOY) basis was 4.5% in May as against 3.9% in April. A year ago, it was 4%.
The Department of Census and Statistics said the YOY inflation of the food group has increased from 9% in April to 9.9% in May, while YOY inflation of the non-food group has increased from 1.8% to 2.2% in the same period.
For the month of May, on YOY basis, contribution to inflation by food commodities was 3%. The contribution of non-food items was 1.52%. This was mainly due to increases in value change in groups of ‘Transport’ (0.43%); ‘Restaurants and Hotels’ (0.30%); ‘Health’ (0.22%); ‘Housing, Water, Electricity, Gas and Other Fuels’ (0.21%); ‘Clothing and Footwear’ (0.18%); ‘Miscellaneous Goods and Services’ (0.07%); ‘Alcoholic Beverages Tobacco and Narcotics’ (0.06%); and ‘Furnishing Household Equipment and routine Household Maintenance’ (0.08%).
Decreases in value change were reported for the groups of ‘Education’ (0.01%) and ‘Recreation and Culture’ (0.01%), and the group of ‘Communication’ remained unchanged during the period.
The moving average inflation rate for May is 3.9%. The corresponding rate April was also 3.9%.
The CCPI for all items in May was 140.3 and it records an increase of 1.5 in index points.
(FT)