Headline inflation as measured by the year-on-year (Y-o-Y) change in the National Consumer Price Index (NCPI, 2013=100) increased marginally to 6.2 per cent in August 2020 from 6.1 per cent in July 2020. This was driven by the monthly increases in prices of items in both Food and Non-food categories. Meanwhile, Food inflation (Y-oY) increased to 13.2 per cent in August 2020 from 12.9 per cent in July 2020, whereas Non-food inflation (Y-o-Y) increased to 1.1 per cent in August 2020 from 1.0 per cent in July 2020.
The change in the NCPI measured on an annual average basis increased to 6.1 per cent in August 2020 from 5.9 per cent in July 2020.
Monthly change of NCPI recorded at 0.4 per cent in August 2020 mainly due to increases observed in prices of items in both Food and Non-food categories. Accordingly, within the Food category, increases were observed mainly in the prices of vegetables, turmeric powder and coconuts during August 2020. Moreover, within the Non-food category, prices of items in the Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco sub-category recorded significant increases during the month. However, Health sub-category recorded a decline during the month with the reduction observed in payments to medical laboratory tests.