YoY inflation of food group reported for the month of November 2017 was 15.7% while that for non-food group was 2.7%.

Issuing National Consumer Price Index (NCPI), for the month of November 2017, Dr. Amara Satharasinghe, Director General of Census and Statistics, said that the Year on Year inflation based on NCPI has declined to 8.4% from 8.8% in October 2017.

The reported inflation for the month of November 2017 was mainly due to comparatively lower price levels prevailed in November 2016 particularly, prices of coconuts, rice and vegetables. Contributions to the inflation from food group and non-food group in November 2017 are 6.9% and 1.5% respectively, whilst contributions of these two groups to the inflation in November 2016 were 0.7% and 3.4% respectively, resulting headline inflation of 4.1% which reflect prevailed comparatively lower food prices in November 2016.

However, when compared to month on month changes, NCPI in November 2017 has increased to 126.4 from 124.8 reported in October 2017. This shows an increase of 1.6 index points or 1.3 percentage points in November 2017 as compared to October 2017.

This month on month change was due to the increases of expenditure value of food items by 0.95% and non-food items by 0.30% respectively.

The increase in expenditure value of food items was due to the price increases of coconuts, green chilies, vegetables, big onions, red onions, rice, eggs and tea dust.
However, decreases in expenditure value in index were reported for fresh fish, banana, potatoes, papaw, limes, mangoes, dried fish, mysoor dhal and coconut oil.

The increase in expenditure value of non-food items in November 2017 compared to the previous month was due to the expenditure value increases in groups of ‘Health’, ‘Miscellaneous Goods and Services’, ‘Recreation and Culture’, ‘Transport’, ‘Clothing and Footwear’, ‘Furnishing, Household equipment and Routine household maintenance’ and ‘Housing, Water, Electricity, Gas and Other fuels’.