The prices of food items and some household goods increased last month thus people had to fork out more money to buy even some basic items.

The Statistics Department report shows that prices for wheat products, meat, fresh fish, fruit, dairy product, oil, tea, ovaltine and many vegetables went up by 2.6%.

Higher prices were also recorded for alcohol, beer, house repair items, kerosene, petrol, furniture, electrical appliances, duty free goods and jewelery, clothes, shoes, medical goods, toys and other laundry goods as well as bus and taxi fares.

The average inflation rate for January this year stands at 5.2 percent compared to 2.5 percent in January last year.