NCPI’S November inflation at 4.8%

Sri Lanka’s inflation for the month of November as measured by the National Consumer Price Index (NCPI) stood at 4.8 percent accelerating from 3 percent in October, the Census and Statistics Department said.

The year-on-year inflation of food Group has increased from 2.3 percent in October 2015 to 4.6 percent in November 2015 while non food group also increased by 3.5 percent to 4.9 percent during this period.

The DCS said the NCPI is compiled using prices collected from all the nine provinces. The Colombo Consumer Price Index (CCPI) only covers the urban areas of the Colombo district. In compiling the CCPI, the alcoholic beverages, tobacco and narcotics division was not included and the restaurants and hotels division was included under the food category limiting the number of categories to 10.

For the NCPI, the prices are collected for each item in the market basket from three price collecting centres in each district town. The items of the market basket are categorized into 12 major divisions as per the internationally recommended classification, of which alcoholic beverages, tobacco and narcotics and hotels and restaurants are two major divisions.

The NCPI (base year 2013), is based on data from the Household Income and Expenditure Survey (HIES) conducted in 2012/13.