The overall rate of inflation as measured by the Colombo Consumer Price Index (CCPI) on year-on-year (Y-o-Y) basis increased marginally to 4.2% in December 2020 from 4.1% in November 2020, the Department of Census and Statistics reported.
The CCPI for all items for the month of December 2020 was 138.0 and it records an increase of 0.9 in index points that is 0.66 percentage points compared to the month of November 2020 for which the index was 137.1. This represents an increase of expenditure value by Rs. 549.24 in the “Market Basket”
Year on Year inflation of Food Group has decreased from 10.3% in November 2020 to 9.2% in December 2020 while that of Non‐food Group has increased from 1.6% in November 2020 to 2.0% in December 2020.
For the month of December 2020, on year‐to‐year basis, contribution to inflation by food commodities was 2.80%. The contribution of Non Food items was 1.41%.
This was mainly due to increases in value change in groups of ‘Housing, Water, Electricity, Gas and Other Fuels’ (0.68%), ‘Transport’ (0.45%), ‘Education’ (0.14%), ‘Clothing and Footwear’ (0.13%), ‘Restaurants & Hotels’ (0.13%), ‘Miscellaneous Goods and Services’ (0.09%) and ‘Alcoholic Beverages Tobacco and Narcotics’ (0.07%).
Decreases in value change were reported for the groups of ‘Health’ (0.17%), ‘Communication’ (0.08%), ‘Furnishing Household Equipment and routine Household Maintenance’ (0.03%) and slight decrease in price was reported in group of ‘Recreation and Culture’.
The moving average inflation rate for the month of December 2020 is 4.6%. The corresponding rate remained unchanged in December 2020 relative to the month of November 2020.
(LIN)