Sri Lanka’s overall rate of inflation, measured by the National Consumer Price Index (NCPI) on a year-on-year basis, rose to 4.7% in April 2026 from 2.4% in March, the Department of Census and Statistics said Thursday.
The 2.3-percentage-point jump in a single month is the steepest acceleration in the index since the early-2024 disinflation phase. NCPI for April stood at 216.3 with a 2.6% month-on-month increase, the statistics office said.
Non-food prices drove the rise, with year-on-year non-food inflation more than doubling to 7.8% in April from 3.8% in March. Food inflation moved more modestly, rising to 1.1% from 0.7%. The 12-month moving average inflation eased to 2.0%.
The acceleration mirrors the 5.4% Colombo CCPI reading released on April 30. Both indices reflect the pass-through of the roughly 35% fuel price increase imposed in April after Brent crude breached US$120 a barrel on Middle East tensions.
The NCPI uses a wider basket and broader geographic coverage than the CCPI, which captures only Colombo district prices. The two indices have now decoupled meaningfully from the 1.6%–2.4% band that prevailed through Q1 2026.
The reading still sits below the Central Bank’s 5% upper inflation target on the NCPI basis but at the upper edge on the CCPI basis. CBSL Governor Nandalal Weerasinghe has defended the existing 5% target as part of broader macro stability, pushing back on calls to lower the band to 2%.
Further upward pressure may come from the 7.29% electricity tariff hike approved on May 11, which will flow into the May CCPI and June NCPI prints.
