Sri Lanka's inflation, as measured by the change in the Colombo Consumers' Price Index (CCPI), decreased to 5.2% in April 2020 from 5.4% in March 2020, the Department of Census and Statistics reported.

The CCPI for all items for the month of April 2020 was 133.6 and it records an increase of 0.2 index points that is 0.14 percentage points compared to the month of March 2020 for which the index was 133.4. This represents an increase of expenditure value by Rs.114.68 in the “Market Basket”

Year on Year inflation of Food Group has increased from 12.8% in March 2020 to 13.2% in April 2020 while that of Non-food Group has decreased from 2.5% in March 2020 to 2.1% in April 2020.

For the month of April 2020, on year-to-year basis, contribution to inflation by food commodities was 3.71%. The contribution of Non Food items was 1.55%.

This was mainly due to increases in value change in groups of ‘Transport’ (0.44%), ‘Housing, Water, Electricity, Gas and Other Fuels’ (0.53%), ‘Education’ (0.36%), ‘Restaurants & Hotels’ (0.20%), ‘Miscellaneous Goods and Services’ (0.14%), ‘Alcoholic Beverages Tobacco and Narcotics’ (0.02%), ‘Clothing and Footwear’(0.15%), and ‘Recreation and Culture’ (0.02%) and decrease in value change was reported for the group ‘Communication’ (0.32%). An insignificant value change was reported in the groups of ‘Health’ and ‘Furnishing Household Equipment’s & Routine Household Maintenance’.

The moving average inflation rate for the month of April 2020 was 4.8%. The corresponding rate for the month of March 2020 was 4.7%.