Consumer prices up 4.8% in May; core inflation shoots to 6.6%

Sri Lanka’s consumer prices rose to a 25-month high of 4.8 percent in May from a year earlier, accelerating from the previous month’s 3.1 percent year-on-year rise, data from the Department of Census and Statistics showed yesterday. Core annual inflation, which excludes fresh food, energy, transport, rice and coconuts, rose to a 38-month high of 6.6 percent, from the previous month’s 4.5 percent. On a month-on-month basis, the Colombo Consumer Price Index (CCPI) rose 2.4 percent in May, from 1.3 percent in April. May inflation, as measured on a 12-month moving average basis, was 1.7 percent, compared with April’s 1.3 percent