The Financial Intelligence Unit of Sri Lanka (FIU) published the sanitized report of the 2021/22 National Risk Assessment (NRA) on Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing (ML/TF), which was developed based on the assessment conducted by the FIU of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) together with public and private sector stakeholders. This assessment was aimed at identifying the ML/TF risks in the country. The assessment highlights the most significant ML/TF threats, vulnerabilities, and risks faced by Sri Lanka.  

Headline inflation, as measured by the year-on-year (Y-o-Y) change in the Colombo Consumer Price Index (CCPI, 2021=100)1 decreased to 4.0% in August 2023 from 6.3% in July 2023. The decline in the headline inflation is mostly in line with the projections envisaged by the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) in July 2023.

The Food deflation (Y-o-Y) continued for the second consecutive month recording 4.8% in August 2023 from 1.4% in July 2023. Meanwhile, the Non-Food inflation (Y-o-Y) decreased further to 8.7% in August 2023 from 10.5% in July 2023. Monthly change of CCPI recorded at -0.02% in August 2023 due to the combined effect of price decreases of -0.41% observed in the items of Food category and price increases of 0.39% recorded in the items of Non-Food category. The core inflation (Y-o-Y), which reflects the underlying inflation in the economy, decreased to 4.6% in August 2023 from 5.9%* in July 2023.

As a result of the policy measures taken thus far, and well anchored inflation expectations, inflation is expected to stabilise around mid-single digit levels over the medium term.