Food prices up 15% in single month | Sunday Observer

Food prices up 15% in single month

9 January, 2022

Advocata’s Bath Curry Indicator (BCI), which tracks the monthly changes in the retail price of food, recorded an increase of 15% from November 2021 to December 2021.

Much of this increase is driven by rising prices of vegetables. 100g of green chillies at Rs.18 increased to Rs 71. This is a 287% increase in one month. Similarly, prices of brinjals have increased by 51%, red onions by 40% and beans and tomatoes by 10%.

Overall, since 2019, prices have almost doubled, and compared to December 2020, prices have increased by 37%.

This means that an average family of four, which spent Rs. 1,165 weekly on the BCI basket of food items in December 2020 now has to pay Rs 1,593 for the same basket of goods just one year later.

Inflation increased to 12.1 percent in December from 9.9 percent in November 2021 according to Central Bank data released recently. Meanwhile, on an annual average basis, the CCPI increased to 6.0 percent in December from 5.3 per cent in November 2021.

An in-depth analysis of the key drivers of current inflation suggests that a large component of inflation is driven by supply side factors.

A detailed explanation in this regard will be published by the Central Bank shortly.

The BCI tracks the weekly retail prices in the Colombo market of the most commonly consumed food ingredients that might be used in a typical Buth curry meal. The prices are collected from the “Weekly Indicators” that the Central Bank publishes.

Advocata is an independent policy think tank based in Colombo, Sri Lanka. 

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