ECONOMYNEXT – Sri Lanka’s national-wide inflation price inflation rises to 1.5 percent in 12-months to August July 2025, rising from 0.7 percent in July, with food prices rising 2.9 percent over the year, data from the state statistics office showed.
The National Consumer Price Index (NCPI) fell 0.5 percent over the month of August.
The National Consumer Price Index, an alternative to the widely watched Colombo Consumer Price Index, fell 0.5 percent over the month of August to 207.2 points.
The central bank has missed its 5 percent inflation target, which is sometimes seen as deflation when 12-month data is taken into account, but prices have moved up marginally since 2022.
Critics have pointed out that under cover of the 5 percent inflation target the central bank triggered back-to-back currency crises since the end of a 30-year war in 2012, 2015/16, 2018 and 2020/20 collapsing the rupee from 113 to 360 to the US dollar.
The Central Bank has expected the inflation to rise to mid single digit level by mid next year after it has been deflation for nearly 12 months. (Colombo/September 23/2025)