Sri Lanka’s inflation climbs to 8.3%

Daily Mirror, Daily FT, EconomyNext and Lanka Business Online report that Sri Lanka’s Colombo Consumer Price Index (CCPI) headline inflation reached 8.3% year-on-year in October 2026, up from 8.0% in September. EconomyNext describes the October reading as a more-than-three-year high and says it exceeded the Central Bank’s 7% upper target for a fourth consecutive month.

EconomyNext and Lanka Business Online report food inflation rose slightly, to 8.8% from 8.7%, while non-food inflation increased to 8.0% from 7.7%. They also report core inflation climbed to 5.6%, from 5.4%. Lanka Business Online says the index increased 0.35% month-on-month, with non-food prices contributing 0.33 percentage point and food prices 0.02 percentage point; it identifies restaurant and hotel prices as a main non-food driver. EconomyNext says restaurant and hotel costs and transport together accounted for 87% of the monthly rise.

EconomyNext reports that the overall CCPI index rose from 209.1 in September to 209.9 in October, a 0.8-point increase, which the Department of Census and Statistics equated to an additional Rs.666.63 in the market basket’s expenditure value. Daily Mirror says higher transport, housing and food costs added to household expenditure.

EconomyNext links recent upward price adjustments to a roughly 50% government fuel-price increase following supply shortages amid tensions in the Middle East and higher global oil prices; it says the latest increase took effect on October 1. Lanka Business Online reports that the Central Bank’s September projections assumed the effects of Middle East tensions and their spillovers would gradually fade. EconomyNext and Lanka Business Online say inflation is projected to stay in high single digits through the first quarter of 2027 before easing toward the 5% target; EconomyNext adds that the Central Bank kept its policy rate unchanged at its latest meeting.

Written automatically by AI from the outlets’ own reports, and not reviewed by an editor. It can be wrong — the original report is the authority.