Sri Lanka’s inflation eases to 2.5% in March 2024

The Department of Census and Statistics (DCS) has revealed in its latest report that the overall rate of inflation in Sri Lanka, as measured by the National Consumer Price Index (NCPI) on a Year-on-Year basis, decreased to 2.5% in March 2024, compared to 5.1% in February 2024.

According to the report, in March 2024, the contributions to the inflation rate from the food group and non-food group were 2.1% and 0.4% respectively.

On a monthly basis, the Year-on-Year inflation of the food group remained unchanged in March 2024 at 5.0%, as reported in February 2024.

Meanwhile, the Year-on-Year inflation of the non-food group decreased to 0.7% in March 2024 from 5.1% in February 2024.

The decreases in index values of non-food groups in March 2024 compared to the previous month were mainly due to price decreases in groups of items such as ‘Housing, Water, Electricity, Gas, and Other fuels’ (including electricity bills) and ‘Clothing and Footwear’.

However, price increases were reported for items in the groups of ‘Alcoholic Beverages, Tobacco and Narcotics’ and ‘Restaurants and Hotels’.

Core inflation, which reflects the underlying inflation by excluding volatile items such as food, energy, and transport groups in the economy, as measured by the Year-on-Year change based on NCPI for the month of March 2024, increased to 3.4% from the 2.7% reported in February 2024.