Issuing National Consumer Price Index (NCPI), for the month of July 2019, Director General of Census and Statistics said that headline inflation as measured by the Year on Year change based on NCPI has been compiled as 2.2%.

The headline inflation reported for the month of June 2019 was 2.1%. Contributions to the inflation in July 2019 from food group and non-food group are -1.1% and 3.4% respectively.

With respect to July 2018, the reported decrease in percentage of food group was mainly due to lower price levels prevailed in this month of July 2019, particularly prices of coconuts and vegetables.

Whilst contributions of food and non-food groups to the inflation in July 2018 were 1.1% and 2.3% respectively, resulting headline inflation of 3.4%.

When compared to month on month changes, NCPI in July 2019 has increased to 129.4 from 129.2 reported in June 2019. This shows an increase of 0.2 index points that is percentage of 0.2 was reported in July 2019 as compared to June 2019.

This month on month change was contributed by increases of expenditure value of food items by 0.11% and non-food items by 0.07% respectively.

However, decrease in expenditure value was reported in group of Transport’ (Airline fare) compared to the preceding month.

Additionally, very slight decrease in expenditure value was reported in group of ‘Alcoholic beverages, Tobacco and Narcotics’. Meanwhile, the expenditure value of ‘Communication’, ‘Education’ and ‘Restaurants and Hotels’ groups remained unchanged during the month.

The core inflation, which reflects the underlying inflation by excluding volatile items of food, energy and transport groups in the economy as measured by the Year on Year change based on NCPI for the month of July 2019 remained at 6.1% as was reported for June 2019.