Sept. Colombo consumer prices pick up pace to 1.5%

• Food prices rose the most while non-food prices eased somewhat on cut to fuel prices

The consumer prices in the Colombo district continued their ascent for the second consecutive month as the prices rose by 1.5 percent in September 2025 from a year ago in a sign that the price pressures are mounting after a prolonged spell of deflation which ended in July.

September inflation measured by the Colombo Consumer Price Index (CCPI), the Central Bank’s most preferred gauge of price index for policy making, marked a slight increment from the 1.2 percent increase in July as the food prices picked up pace.

Prices measured on a monthly basis too rose by 0.2 percent, turning from a negative 0.4 percent in July especially due to the higher food prices.

The Central Bank last week expressed their confidence that the prices would continue their march towards their medium term target of 5.0 percent by the middle of next year, predominantly from the lower base effects they had last year. Meanwhile, the so-called core prices measured stripping out the often volatile food, energy and transport rose by 2.0 percent in the twelve months through July 2025, unchanged from a month ago.

Core inflation measured the underlying price pressures of an economy coming from the demand conditions.

Food prices rose by 2.9 percent in September from a year ago, quickening from 2.0 percent in the month before.The monthly food prices rose by 0.3 percent, turning from a decline of 1.5 percent in July.

This was due to prices of milk powder, wheat flour, coconuts, green gram, fresh fruits, sea fish, big onions, sugar, lime, and the likes, rose in September. This was somewhat offset by the decline in prices of commodities such as rice, dried fish, canned fish, vegetables, red onions, green chilies, salt, ginger and the likes.

The non-food prices measured annually rose by 0.7 percent, slightly decelerating from 0.8 percent in July. The monthly non-food prices rose by 0.1 percent, easing from 0.2 percent a month earlier. The biggest downshift came from the cut to the prices of petrol and diesel at the beginning of the month followed by the easing in the prices of construction materials which brought down the housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels sub-category.

The prices of education, more specifically the international school fees and pre-school fees rose followed by the people’s spending on recreational activities in September.