Inflation in Colombo rose to 8.3% in October from 8.0% in September, the Department of Census and Statistics said, taking the Colombo Consumer Price Index to its highest reading in more than three years and keeping it above the Central Bank’s 7% ceiling for a fourth consecutive month.

The all-items index stood at 209.9 in October against 209.1 in September — a rise of 0.8 index points, or 0.4% month-on-month. In household terms the department put the change at an increase of Rs 666.63 in the value of the market basket, EconomyNext reported.

Food inflation accelerated to 8.8% year-on-year, up from 8.7%, its highest since May 2023. Non-food inflation rose to 8.0% from 7.7%. The Daily Mirror and Hiru News carried the same three headline figures.

Two categories account for most of the rise

EconomyNext reported that the Restaurants and Hotels category together with Transport accounted for 87% of October’s increase — meaning the acceleration is concentrated rather than broad-based across the basket.

That concentration is consistent with fuel. The government raised pump prices by close to 50% after a supply shortage triggered by escalation in the Middle East, with the most recent increase taking effect on 1 October — the first day of the month now being measured. Central Bank Governor Nandalal Weerasinghe warned this week that inflation could run higher if elevated oil prices persist.

Where this sits in the sequence

The reading continues an unbroken climb. This desk reported Colombo inflation stuck at 8.0% in September, then a 37-month high and a third month above the ceiling; October’s 8.3% is a 40-month high and a fourth. The separate National Consumer Price Index held at 8.1% in September.

Update — 31 October 2026: core inflation, the monthly split and the Central Bank’s own forecast

A fourth verified newsroom has filed, and it answers every question left open below. The Daily FT reports that core inflation accelerated to 5.6% year-on-year in October, from 5.4% in September and 5.1% in August — the measure that strips out food and energy, and the one missing from the first three accounts. Annual average headline inflation rose to 5% from 4.5%.

On the month-on-month picture, the CCPI rose 0.35% in October against 0.19% in September. The split is the useful part: non-food contributed 0.33 percentage points, largely on higher restaurant and hotel prices, while food contributed a marginal 0.02 points. Those two contributions sum exactly to the 0.35% total, so the monthly rise in October was almost entirely a non-food event despite food inflation being the higher annual rate.

The subcategories show where the pressure sits. Transport inflation rose to 17.6% from 16.3% and restaurants and hotels to 13.4% from 11.5%, while health eased to 2.6% from 4%.

The Central Bank’s own forecast — also absent from the earlier filings — is that headline inflation will remain in high single digits through the first quarter of 2027 before easing towards the 5% target, and stay near target over the medium term. Those projections were made at the September monetary policy round and are conditional, among other assumptions, on tensions in the Middle East and their spillovers gradually dissipating.

Two points of context the Daily FT adds: inflation has climbed from 7.3% in July, when it first breached the band’s upper limit, and from 2.1% in October 2025. The 5% target itself, first agreed under the Monetary Policy Framework Agreement between the Central Bank and the Minister of Finance in October 2023, was retained under a new agreement signed this month.

Still not reported: the National Consumer Price Index equivalent for October, which is published separately and later in the month.

Multi-source — four verified newsrooms. All agree on 8.3%, 8.8% and 8.0%. EconomyNext alone carries the index level and market-basket value; the Daily FT alone carries core inflation, the monthly contribution split and the Central Bank’s forecast horizon.