The Monetary Board of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka, at its meeting held on 26 December 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 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) decreased to 4.1 per cent in November 2019 from 5.6 per cent in October 2019 contributed by the statistical effect of the high base prevailed in November 2018. Year-on-year (Y-o-Y) Food inflation decreased substantially to 4.0 per cent in November 2019 from 7.3 per cent in October 2019 while Non-food inflation (Y-o-Y) declined marginally to 4.2 per cent in November 2019 from 4.3 per cent in October 2019.