Headline inflation increased from 1.7 percent in December 2024 to 2.5 percent in January 2025, remaining below the lower bound of the medium-term objective range of 3 – 6 percent, and was lower than the 3.9 percent recorded in January 2024. The increase in inflation between December 2024 and January 2025 was mainly due to the base effects associated with the downward adjustment in domestic fuel prices on 21 December 2023, which reduced headline inflation by 0.42 percentage points in January 2024. Furthermore, inflation rose on account of the acceleration in the rate of annual price changes of some categories of goods and services, including Education, Food & Non-Alcoholic Beverages and Alcoholic Beverages & Tobacco. Inflation for domestic tradeables increased from 4.3 percent to 4.6 percent between December 2024 and January 2025. Similarly, inflation for imported tradeables increased significantly from 0.1 percent to 1.6 percent over the same period, mainly on account of base effects associated with the adjustment of domestic fuel prices. As a result, all tradeables inflation rose from 1.2 percent in December 2024 to 2.4 percent in January 2025. Meanwhile, inflation for non-tradeables increased marginally from 2.4 percent to 2.5 percent over the same period.
Similarly, the 16 percent trimmed mean inflation and inflation excluding administered prices increased from 1.7 percent and 3.3 percent to 2.2 percent and 3.5 percent, respectively, between December 2024 and January 2025