Dr (Ms) Dushni Weerakoon has been appointed as a member of the Monetary Board of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka with effect from July 29, 2019.

Dr (Ms) Dushni Weerakoon is the Executive Director of the Institute of Policy Studies of Sri Lanka (IPS) and Head of its Macroeconomic Policy research. She joined the IPS in 1994 on completing her PhD, and has written and published widely on macroeconomic policy, regional trade integration and international economics.

Headline inflation as measured by the year-on-year change in the National Consumer Price Index (NCPI, 2013=100) decreased to 2.1per cent in June 2019 from 3.5per cent in May 2019due to the high base prevailed in the corresponding month of the previous year. Meanwhile, in June 2019, both year-on-year Food and Non-food inflation decreased to -2.9 per cent and6.2 per centfrom -0.4 per cent and 6.7 per cent respectively.

The change in the NCPI measured on an annual average basis remained unchanged at2.0 per cent in June 2019.

When monthly change is considered, the NCPI increased by 0.4 per cent in June 2019 with the increases observed in the prices of the items in both Food and Non-food categories. Within the Food category, prices of fresh fish, big onions, green chillies, red onions and rice recorded increases. In addition, within the Non-Food category, prices of the items in Transport;and Restaurants and Hotels sub-categories increased during the month.