The latest calculation of poverty indices shows that poverty level of the country has further declined from 15.2% reported in 2006/07 to 8.9% in 2009/10, according to the latest data released by the Department of Census and Statistics (DCS).

The 41% reduction reported in just 3 years is the highest drop ever witnessed and the previous highest was the exactly one third drop, from 22.7% to 15.2% reported over the 4 years and 6 months period from 2002 to 2006/07 survey periods, the Department added.

It also said that (DCS) has successfully completed the Household Income and Expenditure Survey (HIES) 2009/10 which is an year long national household sample survey conducted once in every 3 years, aiming at investigating total living standards of household population in Sri Lanka.

The HIES has been the major data source in measuring county’s official poverty statistics as well and therefore the DCS issuances of new poverty indictors too follow the HIES cycle.

The poverty level is measured by Head Count Ratio (HCR) which presents the total number of persons live under the poverty line as a percentage of the total population.

The value of the Official poverty line (OPL) of Sri Lanka was Rs. 3,028 real total expenditure per person per month for the 2009/10 survey period and the current monthly values of the OPL are obtained by inflating the base value of the OPL, Rs. 1,423 established in its base year 2002, using the movement since then of Colombo Consumer Price Index (CCPI), which also took its base year value of 100 in 2002, the Department of Census and Statistics further stated.

The OPL is a real value which accounts for local market commodity price differences measured by Laspyres spatial price index calculated at district level and updated at the survey periods.