The Financial Action Task Force (FATF), the global policy setter on Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT),   has made the initial determination that Sri Lanka has completed its action plan and warrants an on-site assessment to verify that the implementation of Sri Lanka’s AML/CFT reforms has begun and is being sustained, and that the necessary political commitment remains in place to sustain implementation in the future. The decision was taken at the FATF Plenary held during 20-22 February 2019 in Paris. 

Headline inflation as measured by the year-on-year change in the National Consumer Price Index (NCPI, 2013=100) increased to 1.2 per cent in January 2019 from 0.4 per cent in December 2018. The increase observed in year-on-year inflation in January 2019 is driven by the base effect and increase of prices of items in Non-food category. Year-on-year Non-food inflation increased to 6.5 per cent in January 2019 from 4.7 per cent in December 2018. However, year-on-year Food inflation decreased further to -4.8 per cent in January 2019 from -4.5 per cent in December 2018.

The change in the NCPI measured on an annual average basis decreased to 1.8 per cent in January 2019 from 2.1 per cent in December 2018.