National consumer prices slow down to 4.2% in December

22 January 2016 05:12 am

Sri Lanka’s national inflation measured by National Consumer Price Index (NCPI) in December 2015 slowed down to 4.2 percent from 4.8 percent a month ago, data released by the Department of Census and Statistics (DCS) showed. 
The NCPI for December rose index points 1.2 or 1.1 percent—0.89 percent from food and non-alcoholic beverages and 0.12 percent from non-food items— compared to November for which the index was 112.00. 

This increase represents an expenditure value of Rs.364.04 in the “National Market Basket”.
On a year-on-year basis, contribution of food commodities to inflation was 1.18 percent in December 2015 compared to December 2014 and contribution of Non food items was 3.01 percent.

The DCS said the NCPI is compiled using prices collected from all the nine provinces. The Colombo Consumer Price Index (CCPI) only covers the urban areas of the Colombo district. 
The NCPI (base year 2013), is based on data from the Household Income and Expenditure Survey (HIES) conducted in 2012/13.