Advocata Bath Curry Index: Supermarket food prices up 36% in a year

Advocata’s Bath Curry Indicator (BCI), which tracks the monthly changes in the retail price of a select basket of food items, recorded a decrease of 1.5% from January 2022 to February 2022.

The overall decrease was driven by the falling prices of beans (40%), green chillies (15%) and brinjals (13%). However, prices on average have been increasing, with the year on year prices increasing by 15%.

The BCI is based on data released by the Central Bank, taken from the “Weekly Economic Indicators” published by the Statistics department of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka. From this month, the Bath Curry Indicator accessed on bci.advocata.org is now updated to track retail prices from a large scale supermarket chain. This gives an approximate indication of how prices have behaved for consumers who rely on supermarkets for their weekly groceries. Advocata said in a media release.

Comparing supermarket data, for an average family of four to purchase the basket of 10 products in 2020 December would have been Rs.1,546. However, in 2021 December, it cost Rs. 2,094, a 36% increase in one year. The BCI from the same period from Central Bank data showed a 37% increase.