Inflation declines to 3.3% in July

Inflation measured by the Colombo Consumer Price Index (CCPI) fell to 3.3 percent in July on a year-on-year (YoY) basis, decelerating from 3.8 percent recorded for the month of June, the Census and Statistics Department said. 

This was the lowest inflation rate reported so far this year. The YoY inflation of the food group has decreased from -1.0 percent in June to -2.6 percent in July, while that of the non-food group has decreased from 6.0 percent to 5.9 percent.

For the month of July, on a YoY basis, the contribution to inflation by food commodities was -0.79 percent. The contribution of non-food items was 4.13 percent.  

“This was mainly due to the increases in value change in groups of ‘housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels’ (1.07 percent), ‘education’ (1.0 percent), ‘health’ (0.77 percent), ‘transport’ (0.48 percent), ‘restaurants and hotels’ (0.25 percent), ‘alcoholic beverages tobacco and narcotics’ (0.23 percent), ‘clothing and footwear’ (0.20 percent), ‘miscellaneous goods and services’ (0.17 percent), ‘furnishing household equipment’s and routine household maintenance’ (0.16 percent) and ‘recreation and culture’ (0.04 percent) and a decrease in value change was reported for the  group ‘communication’ (0.25 percent),” the Census and Statistics Department said.

The moving average inflation rate for July was 4.0 percent, against 4.2 percent in June.