AMN
Sri Lanka’s National Consumer Price Index based inflation has shown signs of easing. According to Sri Lanka’s statistics department, headline inflation stood at 33.6 percent year-on-year for April, a decrease from the 49.2 percent in previous month.
Food prices experienced a significant decline, dropping to 27.1 percent in April from 42.3 percent in the previous month. Non-food inflation, on the other hand, remained high at 39 percent.
The drop is being attributed to reduced prices of fuel and gas following appreciation of lankan rupee against the dollar by almost 15-18 percent.
Inflation had hit a high of 73 percent in September last year as the island nation spiralled into its worst ever economic crisis since its independence in 1948.
Sri Lanka has been grappling with its worst financial crisis in seven decades, primarily due to economic mismanagement and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Earlier, Colombo Consumer Price Index based inflation which is released monthly, had also showed a decline. The index showed easing of inflation to 35.3 percent in April from the previous month’s 50.3 percent, as reported by the statistics department.