Inflation likely to hit 40% in a few months: Sri Lanka's central bank

Holds interest rates, says it will take at least six months to repay debts

Inflation could rise to a staggering 40 per cent in the next couple of months, but it was being driven largely by supply-side pressures and measures by the country’s central bank and government were already reining in demand-side inflation, the central bank’s Governor P Nandalal Weerasinghe said on Thursday.

Inflation hit 29.8 per cent in April with food prices up 46.6 per cent year-on-year.

He said the central bank has secured foreign exchange to pay for fuel and cooking gas shipments that will ease crippling shortages.

He was speaking after the central bank held interest rates steady at a policy meeting, citing a