Inflation down to 25.2% in May

The Headline inflation, as measured by the year-on-year (Y-o-Y) change in the National Consumer Price Index further reduced to 25.2% in May 2023. The inflation figure for the month of April 2023 was 35.3%.

The Y-on-Y inflation of Food Group decreased to 21.5% in May 2023 from 30.6% in April 2023 and the Y-on-Y inflation of Non Food Group decreased to 27.0% in May 2023 from 37.6% in April 2023. For the month of May 2023, on a Y-on-Y basis, the contribution to inflation by food commodities was 7.02%.

The contribution of Non Food items was 18.13%. This was mainly due to increases in value change in groups of ‘Housing, Water, Electricity, Gas and Other Fuels’ (7.41% ), ‘Transport’ (2.46%), ‘Restaurants & Hotels’ (1.88% ), ‘Clothing and Footwear’ (1.15%), ‘Health’ (0.97%), ‘Furnishing Household Equipment and routine Household Maintenance’ (0.88% ), ‘Miscellaneous Goods and Services’ (0.85%), ‘Education’ (0.85%), ‘Recreation and Culture’ (0.64%), ‘Communication’ (0.58%) and ‘Alcoholic beverages Tobacco and Narcotic′ (0.45%).

Meanwhile, the price indices of ‘Communication’, ‘Education’ and ‘Health’ groups remained unchanged during the month.

Soaring inflation has battered the economy for more than a year after a severe foreign exchange crisis set off the Indian Ocean island’s worst financial crisis in seven decades.

The inflation in September 2022 increased to 73.7% from 70.2% in August 2022. This increase in Y-o-Y inflation was driven by the monthly increases of both Food and Non-Food categories and since 2023 it has started to reduce.