contributed to higher inflation
by Devan Daniel

The Department of Census and Statistics said increases in food prices had led to an increase in the point-to-point change in inflation from 2.8 percent in November to 4.8 percent in December.

“Prices of food commodities recorded increases due to less supply of agricultural consumer goods such as rice, vegetables, fish and sea food, coconuts and Potatoes from November to December,” the Department of Census and Statistics said.

The department said the prices of food and non-food items in the Colombo Consumers’ Price Index (CCPI) had increased by 1.2 percent with food items accounting for an increase of 1.10 percent.

Vegetable prices increased by 0.32 percent, fish and sea food 0.28 percent, green chilies 0.25 percent, coconuts 0.18 percent, eggs 0.14 percent, rice 0.08 percent and chicken 0.07 percent.

While the rate of point-to-point change measured by the CCPI increased to 4.8 percent in December the twelve month moving average rate of inflation reached 3.4 percent in December, the lowest since November 2006.

On a point-to-point basis, the Department of Census and Statistics said, the highest contribution to the overall increase of around 62 per cent had come from food commodities which increased by 3 percent in December 2009.

“Among the food commodities, rice, vegetable, coconuts and coconut oil which have significant weights in the CCPI basket, recorded price increases on a point-to-point basis. Under the non-food category, the prices of kerosene oil, diesel and gas came down by 15 percent, 9 percent and 13 percent respectively. However the price of Petrol has gone up by 7 percent,” the department said.