Advocata’s  Bath Curry Indicator (BCI) , which tracks the monthly changes in the retail price of a select basket of food items, recorded a decrease of 1.5% from January  2022 to February  2022. The overall decrease was driven by the falling prices of beans (40%),  green chillies (15%) and brinjals (13%). However, prices on average have been increasing, with the year on year prices increasing by 15%.

The BCI is based on data released by the Central Bank, taken from the “Weekly Economic Indicators” published by the Statistics department of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka. From this month, the Bath Curry Indicator accessed on bci.advocata.org is now updated to track retail prices from a large scale supermarket chain. This gives an approximate indication of how prices have behaved for consumers who rely on supermarkets for their weekly groceries.

Comparing supermarket data, for an average family of 4 to purchase the basket of ten products in 2020 December would have been LKR 1,546. However, in 2021 December, it now costs LKR 2,094. A 36% increase in one year. The BCI from the same period from Central Bank data showed a 37% increase.

The BCI tracks the weekly retail prices in the Colombo market of the most commonly consumed food ingredients that might be used in a typical Bath curry meal. The prices are collected from the “Weekly Indicators” that the Central Bank publishes.

The BCI Indicator can be accessed at www.bci.advocata.org.