Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa has challenged the government to a public debate on the socio-economic report compiled by the Central Bank and the Department of Census and Statistics, saying its poverty figures rest on data up to a decade old.
Premadasa said the report was “full of errors, flaws and shortcomings” and called it a misleading document intended to deceive the country’s 22 million citizens, Daily Mirror reported. He made the remarks in a special statement on Tuesday and said he was ready for an open debate with any party at any time.
The specific charge
The core of his argument is that the report mixes data vintages.
“When presenting data, there must be chronological consistency and integrity. The Central Bank and the Department of Census and Statistics have no right to present outdated data to formulate a conclusion,” Premadasa said.
He said the sections on socio-economic conditions, poverty, household income and expenditure draw on data from 2016 to 2019, while headline economic and macroeconomic indicators, demographic data and life expectancy use much more recent figures. Hiru News reported him putting the recent range at 2023, 2024 and 2025.
Indicators such as external trade, finance, consumer price indices, real GDP, imports and exports, and prosperity and human development indices were also compared against Asian and SAARC countries using recent data, he said.
“Through this report, the Government is attempting to paint a falsely beautiful picture of the country’s situation. To achieve this, they have selectively included certain information while intentionally omitting other vital facts,” Premadasa said.
The Rs. 17,315 figure
Premadasa challenged the report’s figure that a person could meet their needs for 30 days on Rs. 17,315, according to Newswire. He said no updated household income and expenditure survey has been conducted since the economic collapse.
Citing what he described as World Bank data, Premadasa said the poverty line was USD 8.30 — about Rs. 2,724 — per person per day, and claimed a poverty rate of 65.4%, with 33% of households facing acute food insecurity. These are his figures, presented in his own statement, and are not the official series.
For reference, Hiru notes that the Department of Census and Statistics put the national official poverty line for July 2026 at Rs. 17,679 per person per month, and that the household income and expenditure survey is conducted once every three years — which is the structural reason the socio-economic sections lag.
Why it matters now
Premadasa asked whether the government intends to use these poverty figures to prepare the budget due on 12 November, and called on the government, the Central Bank and the Department of Census and Statistics to explain the use of older figures and publish a revised report before the budget is presented.
LankaNewz reported on 29 September that the Central Bank had released “Sri Lanka Socio-Economic Data – 2026”, the 49th edition of its annual statistical data folder, whose 14 topics include a section on socio-economic conditions. Premadasa describes the document he is criticising as jointly compiled by the Central Bank and the Department of Census and Statistics.
