1 April 2014 05:24 am
The annual average inflation in March decreased to 5.7 percent from 6 percent in February. The Colombo Consumer Price Index rose 0.1 percent or 0.1 index point to 177.9 points during the month.
On a year-to-year basis, the highest contribution to the overall increase of around 87 percent came from non-food commodities, which increased by 4 percent in March 2014.
The combined effects of both domestically produced and imported food commodities contributed to the increase in the Food Sub Index.
Among the food commodities, rice, vegetables and fish and seafood, which have substantial weights in the CCPI basket, recorded price decreases on a year-to-year basis.
Under the Non-Food category, the prices of diesel, kerosene oil, petrol and gas have not been changed during the reference period.