Inflation at five year low

The annual average inflation rate, as measured by the Colombo Consumers' Price Index (CCPI) (2002=100), computed by the Department of Census and Statistics, continued to decelerate since November 2008 and reached a five year low of 5.2 percent, compared to 6.6 per cent in the previous month.

At the same time, the core inflation, which measures the price movement of non-food and non-energy items of the CCPI basket further dropped in October, 2009.

The CCPI increased marginally by 0.4 percent over the previous month, with the Index moving upward to 209.4 from 208.6 in September 2009. The rate of inflation, on a year on year basis, increased marginally to 1.4 percent in October 2009 from 0.7 percent in September 2009.