c, inequality down in 2016

Sri Lanka’s real household incomes rose 15.8 percent to 43,370 rupees per month between 2013 and 2016, while inequality fell with lower income groups earning a higher share of income, the state statistics office said.

Nominal household incomes before adjusting for inflation rose from 45,787 rupees in a 2012/2013 to 62,237 rupees, Sri Lanka’s Department of Census and Statistics said.

In a typical household in Sri Lanka there were 3.8 persons and 1.8 income receivers.

Inequality measured by the Gini co-efficient fell to 0.45 in 2016 from 0.48 in 2013. The coefficient was developed by Corrado Gini, the main statistician of fascist dictator Benito Mussolini.

The co-efficient does not say anything about absolute levels of poverty and has been used by interventionists to trigger more government interventions in people lives and hamper markets or engage in re-distribution activity and has been likened to a jealousy index.

In Sri Lanka for example the Gini co-efficient was 0.48 in the urban sector, 0.44 in rural and 0.36 in the estate sector, where income is the lowest.

The income share of the richest 20 percent of Sri Lanka’s population fell 50.8 percent from 52.9 percent during the survey period, while the incomes share of the poorest 20 percent rose to 12.0 percent from 10.6 percent.

Sri Lanka’s rupee collapsed from the end of 2016, but global commodity and energy prices also fell delaying its effect on domestic inflation, analysts say.