January consumer inflation eases to 5.8%

REUTERS: Sri Lanka’s consumer prices in January rose 5.8 percent from a year earlier, but eased from the previous month’s 7.1 percent, government data showed yesterday. 

Core annual inflation, which excludes fresh food, energy, transport, rice and coconuts, also cooled to 3.5 percent in January on an annual basis, from the previous month’s 4.3 percent. 

The index has a revised base year of 2013 and market basket. 

On a month-on-month basis, the Colombo Consumer Price Index (CCPI) fell 0.1 percent this month, compared with a 0.6 percent rise in December, data from the Department of Census and Statistics showed. 

The inflation rate in January as measured on a 12-month moving average basis was unchanged at a record high of 6.6 percent.