Colombo inflation rises to 8.3% in October 2026

(Photo by Christoph Theisinger on Unsplash)

Year-on-year inflation in Colombo rose to 8.3% in October 2026 from 8.0% in September, according to the latest Colombo Consumer Price Index (CCPI) data released by the Department of Census and Statistics.

Food inflation increased to 8.8% in October from 8.7% in September, while non-food inflation rose to 8.0% from 7.7%. These figures show changes in prices compared with the same month of the previous year.

The CCPI, which uses 2021 as its base year, increased to 209.9 index points in October from 209.1 in September. This represented a monthly increase of 0.4%, equivalent to an additional Rs. 666.63 in the expenditure value of the basket of goods and services used to calculate the index.

Higher non-food prices contributed most to the monthly increase, with restaurants and hotels recording the largest contribution, followed by transport.

Within the food category, prices of several items increased compared with September, including big onions, fresh fish, eggs, bread, wheat flour, chicken, milk powder and coconuts.

However, lower prices for vegetables, fresh fruit, rice, potatoes, sugar and several other food items partly offset these increases.

Among non-food categories, year-on-year transport inflation increased to 17.6% in October from 16.3% in September. Inflation in restaurants and hotels rose to 13.4% from 11.5%, while health inflation declined to 2.6% from 4.0%.

Meanwhile, core inflation, which excludes food, energy and transport, increased to 5.6% in October from 5.4% in September.

Annual average inflation also increased to 5.0% in October from 4.5% in September.

Annual average food inflation rose to 4.1% from 3.7%, while annual average non-food inflation increased to 5.4% from 4.8%, according to the Department of Census and Statistics.