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Lanka February Inflation Eases to 4.5 Percent

Lanka February Inflation Eases to 4.5 Percent
Lanka February Inflation Eases to 4.5 Percent

Sri Lanka’s headline inflation, which consists of all items in the basket of Colombo consumer price index eased to 4.5% during the 12 months to February from 5.8% in January over the base effects and lower food prices, Economynext reported. February marked the easing of inflation for the fourth consecutive month since the index rose to 7.8% in October 2017. February’s inflation is also the lowest since 4.5% reported for December 2016. On a month-on-month basis, the headline inflation fell 0.7%, from just 0.1% in January, the biggest MoM contraction since August 2016. Sri Lanka’s prices were rising since then due to higher credit growth, currency collapse and adverse weather conditions, which negatively affected the harvesting seasons driving the prices of rice and vegetables higher. Meanwhile, the so-called core prices, which measure the inflation barring the volatile items such as food and energy, rose by 3.5% in February, unchanged from January. However, on a MoM basis the rise in core inflation eased to 0.2%, from 0.6% increase in January. The food inflation eased by 2.9% from 1.9% in January.

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