According to a special study conducted by the University of Peradeniya, the monthly consumption expenditure of an average Sri Lankan family has skyrocketed beyond imaginable levels. Professor Wasantha Athukorala of the Department of Economics and Statistics conducted the research.
According to the professor, the monthly consumption expenditure of an extremely poor family in Sri Lanka has increased by eleven thousand (11,000) rupees to twenty-five thousand five hundred (25,500) rupees due to the inflationary situation, from fourteen thousand five hundred (14,500) rupees in 2019. He also stated that the society has a population of 21 lakh people.
He also stated that due to the inflationary situation, the monthly expenditure of a high-income family in Sri Lanka has increased by one hundred and forty thousand rupees to three hundred and forty-five thousand rupees.
Mr. Wasantha Athukorala said that the high-income group includes a population of 20 lakhs.
The professor also stated that the study discovered that the monthly expenditure of a middle-income family in Sri Lanka has increased by 35 thousand rupees to 83 thousand rupees due to the inflationary situation.
Meanwhile, in 2019, twenty-one lakh people in the country had monthly consumption expenditures that exceeded one lakh rupees, a figure that has now risen to eighty-four lakhs.
He went on to say that it appears that the number of people whose monthly consumption expenditure exceeds one lakh rupees has increased not due to an increase in the standard of living, but due to a massive increase in the price of consumer goods.
(Courtesy Sri Lankadeepa)
