The Central Bank says that food inflation in the country has risen to 21.5% by the end of December. That figure was 16.9 last November. Accordingly, food inflation rose to 4.6% in the last month of the year.
Food inflation is likely to cross 25% by the end of January on the back of rising food prices.
Lebanon has the highest food inflation in the Asian region. Iran and Syria are in second and third place respectively, while Sri Lanka is in fourth place. Countries such as Afghanistan and Myanmar, which face a number of political and economic crises, have very low inflation.
Sri Lanka ranks 12th in the world in terms of high food inflation.
The statement issued by the Central Bank in this regard is as follows.
NCPI based annual average headline inflation rises to 7.0 per cent, while Y-o-Y inflation increases to 14.0 per cent in December 2021
Headline inflation, as measured by the year-on-year (Y-o-Y) change in the National Consumer Price Index (NCPI, 2013=100)1, increased to 14.0 per cent in December 2021 from 11.1 per cent in November 2021. Meanwhile, on an annual average basis, the NCPI increased to 7.0 per cent in December 2021 from 6.2 per cent in November 2021.
Inflation was driven by monthly increases of prices of items in both Food and Non-food categories. Subsequently, Food inflation (Y-o-Y) increased to 21.5 per cent in December 2021 from 16.9 per cent in November 2021, while Non-Food inflation (Y-o-Y) also increased to 7.6 per cent in December 2021 from 6.2 per cent in November 2021.
Monthly change of NCPI recorded at 3.68 per cent in December 2021 due to increases observed in prices of items in both Food and Non-food categories which were 3.00 per cent and 0.68 per cent, respectively. Accordingly, within the Food category, prominent increases were observed in prices of vegetables, rice, and green chillies. Further, prices of items in the Non-Food category recorded increases mainly due to price increases observed in the Restaurants and Hotels, and Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco (Arrack, Betel leaves) sub-categories during the month.
The core inflation (Y-o-Y), which reflects the underlying inflation in the economy increased to 10.8 per cent in December 2021 from 8.8 per cent in November 2021, while annual average core inflation increased to 5.5 per cent in December 2021 from 5.0 per cent in November 2021.
Published Date:
Friday, January 21, 2022
