By Uditha Jayasinghe
COLOMBO (Reuters) – Sri Lanka’s consumer price inflation slowed to 4.6% year-on-year in July from 10.8% in June, helped by easing food prices, the statistics department said on Monday.
The National Consumer Price Index (NCPI) captures broader retail price inflation and is released with a lag of 21 days every month.
Food prices contracted to negative 2.5% in July from 2.5% in June, the Department of Census and Statistics said in a statement.
Prices for non-food items also eased to 10.9% in July from 18.3% year-on-year in June.
Since June, Sri Lanka’s inflation has come down sharply from the runaway levels seen earlier, partly due to the statistical base effect, but also helped by a stronger rupee currency, which has lowered the costs of fuel, power and imported food.
A $2.9-billion bailout from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) secured in March has topped up foreign reserves, which had dwindled to record lows in early 2022, plunging the island into its worst financial crisis in more than seven decades.
(Reporting by Uditha Jayasinghe; Editing by Ed Osmond and Clarence Fernandez)
