September inflation ...

Business Council and the Chamber of Commerce, resulting in the media being invited inadvertently. I very much regret the inconvenience caused when as I was made to understand the Business Council officers asked the media to leave the room prior to my speech and ensuing deliberations. Note that I gave the Business Council a choice on a change to the format of the event if the media remained and it was decided that a more interactive, no holds barred interactive discussion would be best, as envisaged originally, without the media.

I am wholly in agreement with what was written in your news/opinion article about market equitability, symmetry and transparency; but the NAPPP is at its infancy and its scope yet to be debated and approved by higher echelons of Government. We are still at the stage of stakeholder discussions.

At this time, I am not ready to give concrete statements, especially in considering that the NAPPP does not have any staff at the moment. I will likely be in a position to do so after the budget speech on 9th November on relevant areas that would have been discussed and agreed by the Ministry of Finance.

I would like to once again reiterate that I had no intention of snubbing the media in any way; I had assumed that the event would not have any media invitees, particularly as many of the proposed plans of the NAPPP are at a preliminary stage pending required approvals and the final decision of opting to have a closed door meeting was made by the organizers of the event.

This demonstrates how food and energy could influence the monthly consumer price index. Economists forecast further price pressures during the remainder of the year due to multiple reasons.

They cited the recent hike in gas prices, the impending increase in fuel prices and the demand pressure as the country nears the year-end festive season, which anyway props up the prices.

The increase in fuel prices will have ripple effects through the economy, as it would lift the prices of all items from transportation, distribution to food and beverage.

Sri Lanka last week left the key interest rates unchanged as the Central Bank is of the view that the prices and the credit in the economy was trending down as the earlier policy measures to tighten the money is making in roads in to the real economy.

But a section of the economists remain sceptical as the price pressure is seen building up and the Central Bank’s 5.5 percent to 6.0 percent growth target could be missed.