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Lanka’s poor surge by 4 Mn to 31-pct of population: Survey

Published

3 years ago

2023/06/11

ECONOMYNEXT –Sri Lanka’s poor has surged by 4 million to 7 million since 2019 to 31 percent of the population in 2023, a survey has found as the country was hit by the worst currency crisis in the history of its central bank.

A 10,000 person survey by LirneAsia, a regional policy research organization, found that 33 percent of the respondents had skipped a meal and 47 percent reduced their meal sizes, after the currency crisis.About 27 percent of adults restricted their meals to feed children. The survey was conducted from October 10, 2022 to May 12, 2023.

Sri Lanka started an output gap targeting exercise (Keynesian stimulus) printing large volumes of money and a so-called flexible exchange rate backed by inconsistent policy collapsed in 2022 from 200 to 360 to the US dollar, tearing apart the monetary foundations of families, destroying real salaries and jobs.

Food prices soared partly due to a global commodity bubble fired by the Federal Reserve and also import restrictions from forex shortages and disruption to agriculture from a fertilizer ban.

Agro-chemicals were bannd to ‘save’ 300 to 400 million dollars in foreign exchange, the government said at the time.Rohan Samarajiva Chair of LirneAsia said he searched for historical data and found a thesis done by one M Salgado, which estimated gross domestic product during the Great Depression.

“He talked about the Great Depression affecting Sri Lanka and how our per capita income, which was about 80 dollars, went down by about half over a period of four years,” Samarajiva told a forum where research findings was released.

The Great Depression was a ‘deflationary collapse’ during the 1930s came in the wake of the Federal Reserve firing the ‘roaring 20s bubble’ after accidentally inventing the policy rate giving power to economists to mis-target interest rates, analysts have said.

Sri Lanka at the time however did not have a central bank to trigger a currency collapse. Food prices fell steeply during the Great depression. In a central bank currency crisis, the worst hit are wage earners whose salaries do not go up as prices rise with a collapse of the value of domestic money.

From March 2023, Sri Lanka central bank has appreciated the currency with deflationary policy, allowing food prices to fall.

In Sri Lanka poverty among Sri Lanka’s plantation worker families was already high at 31 percent by 2019, based on a household income and expenditure survey (HIES 2019) of the state statistics office.

“This has worsened in 2023. Now more than half our estate workers are living below the poverty line,” Tharaka Amarsinghe, a researcher at LIRNEasia said.

“Now more than half our estate workers are living below the poverty line.”

In the rest of rural Sri Lanka poverty has doubled from 15 to 32 percent from 2019 to 2023.In urban areas, which are densely populated, poverty tripled to 6 to 18 percent.About 32 percent of families had sold household assets and 50 percent had run down their savings.

Another 6 percent did not send their children to school, indicating that 203,000 children did not attend school. Parents had mentioned that they did not have exercise books and had to make up books from empty pages of old books, according to a panelist.Sri Lanka has a number of government income support programs, chief among them known as Samurdhi.

The survey found that 1.7 million families got Samurdhi benefits but only 40 percent were poor or below the official poverty line Gayani Hurrulle, Senior Research Manager at LirneAsia said. About 4 percent were in the richest income decile, 5 percent were in the next.

Only 17 percent who were on Samurdhi benefits have exited the program. Opaque criteria including attending political meetings were used by Samurdhi officials to admit new applicants, respondents to the survey had said.

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Heat Index at Caution Level at some places in the Northern, North-central, Eastern, Sabaragamuwa and North-western provinces and in Monaragala district during the day time

Published

3 hours ago

2026/05/1

Priyan

Warm Weather Advisory
Issued by the Natural Hazards Early Warning Centre
Issued at 3.30 p.m. on 30 April 2026, valid for 01 May 2026.

The Heat index, the temperature felt on human body is likely to increase up to ‘Caution level’ at some places in the Northern, North-central, Eastern, Sabaragamuwa, and North-western provinces and in Monaragala district during the day time.

The Heat Index Forecast is calculated by using relative humidity and maximum temperature and this is the condition that is felt on your body. This is not the forecast of maximum temperature. It is generated by the Department of Meteorology for the next day period and prepared by using global numerical weather prediction model data.

Effect of the heat index on human body is mentioned in the above table and it is prepared on the advice of the Ministry of Health and Indigenous Medical Services.

ACTION REQUIRED
Job sites: Stay hydrated and takes breaks in the shade as often as possible.
Indoors: Check up on the elderly and the sick.
Vehicles: Never leave children unattended.
Outdoors: Limit strenuous outdoor activities, find shade and stay hydrated.
Dress: Wear lightweight and white or light-colored clothing.

Note:
In addition, please refer to advisories issued by the Disaster Preparedness & Response Division, Ministry of Health in this regard as well. For further clarifications please contact 011-7446491.

News

USD 2.5 mn fraud probe: Interdicted MoF official found dead at home

Published

4 hours ago

2026/05/1

Thilina Walpola

An Assistant Director of the External Resources Department (ERD) of the Ministry of Finance, interdicted pending an investigation into the diversion of US$2.5 million in Treasury funds to a rogue account was found dead at his residence in Kuliyapitiya.

The deceased has been identified as Ranga Nishantha, 50.

Police said the officer had been found in the garden of his house and they believed that the officila had committed suicide. However, investigators have not ruled out other possibilities, and inquiries are continuing.

The official was interdicted along with three other senior Finance Ministry officials over a cyber-enabled financial fraud.

Those interdicted include a Director and an Assistant Director from the ERD, as well as a Director and an Additional Director General from the Public Debt Management Office (PDMO).

Police sources said that the CID had on two occasions asked Nishantha to make a statement in connection with the ongoing investigation, but he had failed to comply.

Police said the CID probe into the alleged cyber fraud is continuing, with investigators examining the circumstances surrounding the diversion of funds through compromised communication channels.Kuliyapitiya Police said further investigations were underway to establish the exact cause of death.

News

Alarm raised over plan to share Lanka’s biometric data with blacklisted Indian firm

Published

4 hours ago

2026/05/1

Thilina Walpola

FSP accuses govt. of reducing Sri Lanka to a puppet of India by giving away sensitive data

Jana Aragalaya Movement, affiliated to the Frontline Socialist Party, yesterday raised alarm over a move to hand over Sri Lankans’ fingerprint and iris biometric data to a blacklisted foreign company.

Speaking at a media briefing in front of the Ministry of Fisheries yesterday Jana Aragalaya Movement National Operational Committee Member Wasantha Mudalige alleged that India was seeking access to Sri Lanka’s sensitive national data systems in a bid to exert influence over the country.

He said that decision-making authority over the proposed biometric identity card system was being ceded to India.

Mudalige said the electronic identity card project, launched in 2012, had already cost Rs. 5.6 billion in software development, with a further Rs. 600 million needed for completion. However, he alleged that in 2021 the Gotabaya Rajapaksa administration had moved to integrate the project

with India for biometric implementation, despite substantial local investment already made.

He said a government tender process had been initiated but later stalled after bidders failed to meet required qualifications.

He alleged that in 2023 the Ranil Wickremesinghe administration had attempted to award the project to Madras Security Printers, a company blacklisted over an excise-related fraud case, and that the move was halted following public opposition.

Mudalige added that after President Anura Kumara Dissanayake assumed office, Sri Lanka had signed an agreement with India in January 2025 under which tendering authority was also transferred.

He alleged that while five Indian companies were initially registered, a sixth company—Madras Security Printers—was later added by March 2026, raising further concerns.

Calling for urgent clarification, Mudalige warned that Sri Lanka risked undermining its sovereignty and national security, insisting the country must not be reduced to what he termed a foreign “puppet state.”

by Chaminda Silva