The Central Bank of Sri Lanka launched the dedicated Web Portal of the Regional Development Department (RDD Web Portal) on 04.08.2023, signifying its strategic orientation towards financial inclusion initiatives.

RDD Web Portal was developed with the financial assistance of the International Finance Corporation (IFC), a longstanding partner of the Central Bank, in promoting financial inclusion since 2018. This latest initiative is part of the overall National Financial Inclusion Strategy (NFIS) for Sri Lanka – in which, IFC played a significant role to make financial services more accessible, efficient, and affordable for all households and businesses in the country.

The Central Bank under its new legislation is now vested with the responsibility of promoting financial inclusion, hence launching of the Web Portal marks an important step towards promoting financial inclusiveness in the country and is expected to facilitate all stakeholders of the country through dissemination of information on the financial inclusion efforts of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka.

Headline inflation, as measured by the year-on-year (Y-o-Y) change in the Colombo Consumer Price Index (CCPI, 2021=100) decreased to 6.3% in July 2023 from 12.0% in June 2023. The decline in the headline inflation is broadly in line with the disinflation path envisaged by the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) in July 2023.

The Food category, nearly after four years, recorded a deflation (Y-o-Y) of 1.4% in July 2023 compared to the inflation of 4.1% observed in June 2023. Meanwhile, the Non-Food inflation (Y-o-Y) decreased further to 10.5% in July 2023 from 16.2% in June 2023. Monthly change of CCPI recorded at -1.12% in July 2023 due to the combined effect of price decreases of -1.13% observed in the items of Non-Food category and the marginal price increases of 0.01% recorded in the items of Food category. The core inflation (Y-o-Y), which reflects the underlying inflation in the economy, decreased to 6.1% in July 2023 from 9.8% in June 2023.