Sri Lanka’s National inflation measured by the national Consumer Price Index (NCPI) accelerated to its highest levels since 2015 17.5 percent on a Year-on-Year basis in February 2022, the Department of Census and Statistics (DCS) announced.
The reported inflation for the month of February 2022 was mainly due to the higher price levels that prevailed in both food and non-food groups. Accordingly, the Year-on-Year inflation of the food group increased to 24.7% in February 2022 from 24.4% in January 2022 and the Year-on-Year inflation of the non-food group increased to 11.0% in February 2022 from 10.2% in January 2022. Contribution to Year-on-Year inflation:
The inflation calculated for January stood at 16.8 percent 16.8%.
On a Year-on-Year basis, the contribution of food commodities to inflation was 11.66 percent in February 2022 compared to the month of February 2021. Contribution of non-food items was 5.84 percent. This was mainly due to price increases in groups of items ‘Transport’ (1.26%), ‘Restaurant and Hotels’ (1.13%), ‘Housing, Water, Electricity, Gas and Other fuels’ (0.84%), ‘Health’ (0.56%), ‘Alcoholic beverages, Tobacco and Narcotics’ (0.55%), ‘Furnishing, Household equipment and Routine household maintenance’ (0.46%), ‘Clothing and Footwear’ (0.40%), ‘Miscellaneous goods and services’ (0.40%), ‘Education’ (0.13%) and ‘Recreation and Culture’ (0.11%). Meanwhile, the group of ‘Communication’ remained unchanged during the period.