Inflation up to 15.1% highest since 2008

Inflation up to 15.1% highest since 2008Sri Lanka’s annual inflation climbed to 15.1 % in February of 2022 from 14.2% in the previous month. It was the highest inflation rate since November of 2008 and the third consecutive double digit growth in consumer prices as prices continued to rise both for food (25.7 p% vs 25 percent in January) and non-food products (10.1% vs 9.2% ). On a monthly basis, consumer prices went up by 1.1%, slowing from a 2.4% rise in January.

This increase represents an increase in expenditure value of Rs. 580 in the “Market Basket”.The month-on-month change was contributed by increases of index value of food items by 0.59% and non-food items by 0.49% respectively.

The increases in index values of non-food groups in February 2022 compared to the previous month was mainly due to the price increases in groups of items. The overall rate of inflation as measured by NCPI on Year-on-Year basis is 17.5% in February 2022 and inflation calculated for January 2022 was 16.8%.

With respect to February 2021, the reported inflation for the month of February 2022 was mainly due to the higher price levels prevailing 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.