Sri Lanka’s inflation eases further in December 2022

Headline inflation, as measured by the year-on-year (Y-o-Y) change in the Colombo Consumer Price Index (CCPI, 2013=100)1 decreased to 57.2 per cent in December 2022 from 61 per cent in November 2022 recording the lowest reading in the second half of 2022.

Following a similar trend, the Food inflation (Y-o-Y) decreased to 64.4 per cent in December 2022 from 73.7 per cent in November 2022. Meanwhile, the Non-Food inflation (Y-o-Y) decreased to 53.4 per cent in December 2022 from 54.5 per cent in November 2022, the Central Bank said in a statement.

Monthly change of CCPI was recorded at 0.26 per cent in December 2022.

This was mainly contributed by the monthly increases of the prices of the items in the Non-Food category, which amounted to 0.36 per cent. Accordingly, within the Non-Food category, increases were observed in prices of Clothing and Footwear (Clothing), Transport (Airline Fare and Revenue License Fee) and Housing, Water, Electricity, Gas and other Fuels (LP Gas) sub- categories during the month. However, moderating the overall monthly increase in the CCPI to some extent, the contribution from the Food category recorded at -0.10 per cent in December 2022, mainly due to price decreases observed in Fresh Fish, Dry Fish, Big Onions and Bread.

Meanwhile, annual average inflation rose to 46.4 per cent in December 2022 from 42.6 per cent in November 2022.

The core inflation (Y-o-Y), which reflects the underlying inflation in the economy decreased to 47.7 per cent in December 2022 from 49.4 per cent in November 2022, while annual average core inflation increased to 34.6 per cent in December 2022 from 31.4 per cent in November 2022.