Colombo inflation cools to 1.6% in February on lower food prices

The Colombo district consumer prices eased in February, as the prices of most food items fell while the non-food prices didn’t budge either way as the prices of petrol were cut.

The consumer prices, measured according to the Colombo Consumer Price Index, came at 1.6 percent in the 12 months to February 2026, down from 2.3 percent through January.

The prices measured on a monthly basis fell 0.9 percent in February 2026, after rising 0.6 percent in January, reflecting that the near-term prices have softened.  

It is welcoming to see the consumer prices eased again when the expectation is for the prices to rise to the Central Bank’s medium-term target of 5.0 percent by the second half of this year.

There were reports recently quoting the Central Bank official saying they are willing to revisit their inflation target as part of their agreement with the government, as inflation in recent times has continued to undershot their desired range agreed with the government, including a period of deflation – in which the annual prices continued to come down.

According to the February inflation print, the food prices rose by 0.2 percent year-on-year (YoY), slowing significantly from the 3.3 percent increase through January 2026.

The food prices measured monthly fell 2.6 percent in February, after rising 0.6 percent in January.

The prices of rice, fresh fish, milk powder, coconut, vegetables, potatoes, big onions, green chilies, limes and the likes fell in prices in February from January levels while the prices of fresh fish, chicken rose among only a few items of food goods, which rose in prices.

The non-food prices rose by 2.3 percent YoY in February, accelerating from 1.8 percent through January.

The prices measured monthly stayed unchanged after rising 0.6 percent month-on-month in January.

The cut to the petrol prices in February was the leading cause for the February prices softening on the non-food category.

Meanwhile, the so-called core-prices, measured stripping out the impact of often-volatile food, energy and transport, rose by 2.1 percent in the year through February 2026, softening from 2.3 percent through January.

Despite certain jitters over possible conflict between the United States and Iran, which pushed the prices of oil slightly up lately, US President Donald Trump has managed to keep the global oil prices and other commodities down for the most part, helping the global inflation down.

This is despite the various forecasts and predictions by the International Monetary Fund and other experts to the contrary, which painted a gloomy picture over the global economy over tariffs, which never came to pass.