Inflation up in August YoY

The year on year inflation (YoY) has increased in August according to the Department of Census and statistics.

The inflation as measured by Colombo Consumer Price Index (CCPI) was 6% in August 2017 and inflation calculated for July was 4.8%.

YoY inflation of Food Group too has increased from 4.8% in July to 6.9% in August 2017 and that of non food Group has increased from 4.7% to 5.7% during this period.For the month of August 2017, on year to year basis, contribution to inflation by food commodities was 2.07%. The contribution of Non-food items was 3.96%.

This was mainly due to value change increases in groups of ‘education’ (0.90%), ‘health’ (0.55%), ‘transport’ (0.46%), ‘miscellaneous goods and services’ (0.44%), ‘communication’ (0.43%), ‘alcoholic beverages tobacco and narcotic’ (0.36%), ‘furnishing household equipment’s & routine household maintenance’ (0.36%), ‘restaurants & hotels’ (0.34%), ‘clothing and footwear’ (0.11%), ‘recreation &culture’ (0.03%) and value change decrease in group of ‘Housing, Water, Electricity, Gas and Other Fuels’ (0.02%) .

The moving average inflation rate for the month of August 2017 was 5.5%. The corresponding rate for the month of July was 5.4%. Meanwhile the CCPI for all items for the month of August 2017 was 118.8 and it records a decrease of 0.6 index points or 0.45 percentage points compared to the month of July 2017 for which the index was 119.4.

This represents a decrease of expenditure value by Rs.324.76 in the “Market Basket”.

Contributions to the decrease in CCPI from July to August 2017 in the index point by 0.45% was due to the decrease of Food and non-alcoholic beverages items by 0.79% and increase of Non Food items by 0.34%.