Issuing National Consumer Price Index (NCPI), for the month of May 2018, D.G.S.G. Munasinghe, Actg. Director General of Census and Statistics said that the year on year inflation based on NCPI has been compiled as 2.1%.
The inflation reported for the month of April 2018 was 1.6%. Inflation reported three consecutive months of decline below the 3.0% starting from March 2018. Contributions to the inflation in May 2018 from food group and non-food group are -0.02% and 2.05% respectively, whilst contributions of these two groups to the inflation in May 2017 were 4.6% and 2.5% respectively, resulting headline inflation of 7.1%.
When compared to month on month changes, NCPI in May 2018 has increased to 124.3 from 122.9 reported in April 2018. This shows an increase of 1.4 index points that is 1.1 percentage points in May 2018 as compared to April 2018. This month on month change was contributed by increases of expenditure value of food items by 0.55% and non-food items by 0.61% respectively.
The increases in expenditure value of food items were reported for vegetables, fresh fish, big onions, limes, potatoes, chicken, eggs, dried fish, green chilies, ginger, infant milk powder and milk powder. However, decreases in expenditure value of food items were reported for coconuts, banana, papaw, mangoes, garlic, rice and gram.