Sri Lanka’s annual inflation rate declined to 6.3% in July, marking the lowest since September 2021, driven by a reduction in food inflation, which decreased to 1.4%, compared to 4.1% in the previous month. Core inflation slowed down to 6.1% from June’s 9.1%. Meanwhile, Sri Lanka reported a primary budget surplus of 30.7 bln rupees in H1 2023, surpassing an IMF target. However, total revenues escalated to 1.3 tln rupees, a surge from 918 bln rupees in the prior year. Conversely, the overall budget deficit expanded to 1.24 tln rupees in H1 2023.