COLOMBO, May 22 (Xinhua) -- Sri Lanka's inflation, measured by the National Consumer Price Index (NCPI), dropped to 33.6 percent in April from 49.2 percent reported in March, said a statement released by the Department of Census and Statistics on Monday.
According to the statement, contributions to the inflation rate of April 2023 from the food group and non-food group are 12.3 percent and 21.3 percent, respectively.
With respect to April 2022, the reported inflation for the month of April 2023 was mainly due to higher price levels that prevailed in both food and non-food groups, said the statement.
On a monthly basis, the year-on-year inflation of the food group decreased to 27.1 percent in April 2023 from 42.3 percent in March 2023, and the year-on-year inflation of the non-food group fell to 39.0 percent in April 2023 from 54.9 percent in March 2023, the statement said.
Core inflation, which reflects the underlying inflation by excluding volatile items of food, energy and transport groups in the economy as measured by the year-on-year change based on NCPI for the month of April 2023, decreased to 31.8 percent from 44.2 percent reported in the previous month.
Sri Lanka's central bank said in April that the anticipated declining trend of inflation was expected to continue through 2023, bringing down the prevailing high inflation towards single digit levels by late 2023. ■
