Headline inflation, as measured by the year-on-year (Y-o-Y) change in the National Consumer Price Index (NCPI, 2013=100) increased to 73.7% in September 2022 from 70.2% in August 2022. This increase in Y-o-Y inflation was driven by the monthly increases of both Food and Non-Food categories. Accordingly, Food inflation (Y-o-Y) increased to 85.8% in September 2022 from 84.6% in August 2022, while Non-Food inflation (Y-o-Y) increased to 62.8% in September 2022 from 57.1% in August 2022.

The Monetary Board, with the concurrence of the Hon. Minister of Finance, has promoted Mrs. K M A N Daulagala, Assistant Governor and the Secretary to the Monetary Board, to the post of Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) with effect from 07 October 2022.

Mrs. K M A N Daulagala has over 31 years of service at CBSL in different capacities in the areas of supervision and regulation of non-bank financial institutions, macroprudential surveillance, finance, international operations, risk management, regional development, human resource management and training and development. She has served as the Chief Accountant and Director of Supervision of Non-Bank Financial Institutions and Financial System Stability and has contributed towards strengthening the legal framework and governance in the non-bank financial institutions sector. Prior to the appointment as a Deputy Governor, Mrs. Daulagala held the position of Assistant Governor and was in-charge of the Macroprudential Surveillance Department and the Centre for Banking Studies and served as the Secretary to the Monetary Board. She also served as Secretary to the Board Risk Oversight Committee, Monetary Board Advisory Audit Committee and the Ethics Committee.

The Monetary Board of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka, at its meeting held on 05 October 2022, decided to maintain the Standing Deposit Facility Rate (SDFR) and the Standing Lending Facility Rate (SLFR) of the Central Bank at their current levels of 14.50 per cent and 15.50 per cent, respectively. In arriving at this decision, the Board considered the latest macroeconomic conditions, expected developments and macroeconomic projections. The Board noted the tight monetary conditions prevailing at present, the decelerating pace of inflation, and the envisaged disinflation path in the near term supported by both domestic and global factors. The Board was of the view that the monetary conditions remain sufficiently tight to achieve the envisaged disinflation path in the period ahead. The contractionary fiscal policies would complement the effects of tight monetary policy measures already in place, helping to mitigate any build-up of aggregate demand pressures, thereby anchoring inflation expectations and bringing down headline inflation to the targeted level of 4-6 per cent over the medium term.

The Central Bank of Sri Lanka co-hosted the CBSL-ADBI-APAEA Online Macroeconomics Conference for the third consecutive year, in collaboration with the Asian Development Bank Institute (ADBI) and the Asia-Pacific Applied Economics Association (APAEA), on 23 September 2022. This year’s theme remained same as the previous year; ‘Emerging Issues for Macroeconomic Stability’.