Mar 22, Colombo: Sri Lanka’s nationwide inflation in February 2022 determined under the National Consumer Price Index (NCPI) rose to 17.5 percent from 16.8 percent recorded in January 2022 on a year-on-year basis, the Department of Census and Statistics reported Monday.

The NCPI for all items for the month of February 2022 increased to 167.8 from 166.0 in the previous month.

With respect to February 2021, the reported inflation for the month of February 2022 was mainly due to the higher price levels prevailed in both food and non-food groups.

Accordingly, the Year-on-Year inflation of the food group increased to 24.7 percent in February 2022 from 24.4 percent in January 2022and the Year-on-Year inflation of the non-food group increased to 11.0 percent in February 2022 from 10.2 percent in December 2021.

Contributions to the inflation rate of February 2022 from food group and non-food group are 11.66 percent and 5.84percent respectively.

The moving average inflation for the month of February 2022 is 9.3 percent. The corresponding rate for the month of January 2022 was 8.1 percent.