Originally appeared in the Daily FT and Daily Mirror
Advocata’s Bath Curry Indicator (BCI) which tracks the monthly changes in the price of food recorded a jump of 14.3% for the month of June 2021.
The month of June experienced an increase in prices comparatively to the month of May, according to the basket of food tracked by the BCI.
The 3 items that contributed most to this increase were:
For the month of June 2021, the prices of green chillies, coconut, and beans, increased by 64%, 33% and 17% respectively. Likewise, the prices of Samba rice, pumpkin, Brinjals, Dhal and red onions also experienced minor increases in prices as well.
In comparison to the month of June 2020, the BCI has increased by 30%, for 2021, which translates that an average family of 4 that spent Rs.1,136 on this basket of goods for a week in May, would pay Rs.1, 299 for the same amount of goods in a week in June.
The BCI tracks the weekly retail prices in the Colombo market of the most commonly consumed food ingredients that might be used in a typical Buth curry meal. The prices are collected from the “Weekly Indicators” that the Central Bank publishes.
The BCI Indicator can be accessed at www.bci.advocata.org.