(Reuters) – Sri Lanka’s key inflation rate slowed to 66% in October after hitting 69.8% in September, the crisis-struck country’s statistics department said on Monday.
The surge in the Colombo Consumer Price Index (CCPI) was led by a 85.6% jump in food prices and a 56.3% climb in the non-food group, the Census and Statistics Department said in a statement.
The CCPI, released at the end of each month, acts as a lead indicator for broader national prices and shows how inflation is evolving in Colombo, Sri Lanka’s biggest city, as the country battles its worst economic crisis since independence in 1948.
(Reporting by Chris Thomas in Bengaluru; editing by Philippa Fletcher)