The easing of deflationary conditions continued in May in line with the Central Bank’s near-term projections.
The year-on-year (Y-o-Y) change in the Colombo Consumer Price Index (CCPI, 2021=100) reflected a slower pace of headline deflation at 0.7% in May 2025 compared to the deflation of 2.0% recorded in April 2025.
Non-Food deflation (Y-o-Y) decelerated further to 3.3% in May 2025 from 3.6% in April 2025. Meanwhile, Food inflation (Y-o-Y) accelerated to 5.2% in May 2025 from 1.3% recorded in April 2025. On a month-on-month basis, the CCPI increased by 0.82% in May 2025, for which the Food category contributed by 0.88 percentage points and the Non-Food category contributed by -0.06 percentage points. Core inflation (Y-o-Y), which reflects the underlying inflation trends in the economy, accelerated to 1.2% in May 2025 from 0.8% recorded in April 2025.
Inflation is expected to turn positive in early third quarter of 2025 and gradually align with the inflation target of 5%, with the support of appropriate policies.
The Colombo Consumer Price Index (CCPI, 2021=100) is compiled by the Department of Census and Statistics (DCS) to indicate average changes in the prices of goods and services purchased by households in urban areas of the Colombo district.
