Inflation up to 45.3% in May

The overall rate of inflation as measured by National Consumer Price Index (NCPI) on year-on-year basis is 45.3% in May 2022 and inflation calculated for April 2022 was 33.8%. With respect to May 2021, the reported inflation for the month of May 2022 was mainly due to the higher price levels prevailed in both food and non-food groups.

Accordingly, the year-on-year inflation of the food group increased to 58.0% in May 2022 from 45.1% in April 2022 and the year-on-year inflation of the non-food group increased to 34.2% in May 2022 from 23.9% in April 2022. On a year-on-year basis, the contribution of food commodities to inflation was 27.26 % in May 2022 compared to the month of May 2021.

Contribution of non-food items was 18.10 %. This was mainly due to price increases in groups of items ‘Transport’ (6.54%), ‘Housing, Water, Electricity, Gas and Other fuels’ (2.75%), ‘Restaurant and Hotels’ (2.11%), ‘Miscellaneous goods and services’ (1.37%), ‘Health’ (1.34%), ‘Furnishing, Household equipment and Routine household maintenance (1.24%), ‘Alcoholic beverages, Tobacco and Narcotics’ (0.97%), Clothing and Footwear’( 0.83%), ‘Education’ (0.63%), ‘Recreation and Culture’ (0.30%) and ‘Communication’ (0.03%) during the period.

The NCPI for all items for the month of May 2022 is 208.7. An increase of 18.4 index points or 9.7 percentage compared to April 2Q22 to which the index was 190.3. This increase represents an increase in expenditure value of Rs.5914.45 in the market basket.