The Monetary Board of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka, at its meeting held on 28 November 2019, decided to maintain its accommodative monetary policy stance with the Standing Deposit Facility Rate (SDFR) and the Standing Lending Facility Rate (SLFR) of the Central Bank remaining at their current levels of 7.00 per cent and 8.00 per cent, respectively. The Board arrived at this decision following a careful analysis of current and expected developments in the domestic economy and the financial market as well as the global economy. The decision of the Monetary Board is consistent with the aim of maintaining inflation in the desired 4-6 per cent range while supporting economic growth to reach its potential over the medium term.

Headline inflation as measured by the year-on-year change in the National Consumer Price Index NCPI, 2013=100)1 increased to 5.6 per cent in October 2019 from 5.0 per cent in September 2019. The monthly increases of prices of items in the Food category contributed to this increase. Accordingly, Food inflation (Y-o-Y) increased to 7.3 per cent in October 2019 from 4.9 per cent in September 2019. However, Non-food inflation (Y-o-Y) recorded 4.3 per cent, continuing its decreasing trend observed since May 2019.