Sept 22, Colombo: Sri Lanka's nationwide inflation in August 2018 determined under the National Consumer Price Index (NCPI) declined to 2.5 percent from 3.4 percent recorded in July 2018 on a year-on-year basis, the Department of Census and Statistics reported Friday.

The NCPI for all items for the month of August 2018 decreased to 125.4 from 126.6 in July 2018. The decrease in the index point by 0.91 percent was due to the decrease in expenditure value of food items by 1.31 percent and increase in non-food items by 0.40 percent.

Year on Year inflation of food group has decreased from 2.4 percent in July 2018 to 0.0 percent in August 2018 and that of non‐food group has increased from 4.3 percent to 4.7 percent during this month

On year on year basis, contribution of food commodities to inflation was -0.01 percent in August 2018 and contribution of non-food items was 2.57 percent.

The moving average inflation for the month of August 2018 is 4.7 percent. The corresponding rate for July 2018 was 5.1 percent.