Poverty cutoff figure rises to Rs 4,584
PANEETHA AMERESEKERE- FEB 15 2019The country’s island-wide poverty cutoff point jumped sharply by Rs 52 to Rs 4,584 last month; complementing the increase in inflation, which saw last month’s Colombo inflation accelerate by 0.9 percentage points to 3.7% over its December figure.
That means people have to earn more to keep their noses above the water, without being swamped by the waters of poverty, to be downgraded by being classified as being poor.
Sri Lanka’s last poverty headcount was in 2016, which saw 4.1% or 843,914 individuals in poverty.
The poverty cutoff point then was Rs 4,166 per person, per month. Since then, egged on by inflation, the poverty cutoff point has accelerated by Rs 418 to Rs 4,584.
If the value of the poverty line is increased by 10% (from Rs 4,166 to Rs 4,582.60) then the poverty head count index increases up to 6.1%, the Government owned Census and Statistics Department (CSD) which compiles such figures then said.
That means that the number of people who are in poverty increases from 843,913 to 1,255,702. Further, if real per capita monthly expenditure is decreased by Rs.100, then the poverty headcount index will be increased up to 4.5% (933,087 individuals), it added.
