Sri Lanka to change price index basket next year

Dec 19, 2009 (LBO) - Sri Lanka will change the basket of goods in its most widely watched price index from next year and re-base it to reflect consumption patterns of a newer survey, an official said.









The revised index itself was made 'official' suddenly at the height of an inflation bubble in April 2008, when consumer prices hit 29.

9 percent under an older index, the highest ever.

Bad Governance

Changing consumption baskets in the middle of high inflation bubbles is a sign of bad governance and money printing governments.

Zimbabwe's Central Statistics Office also stopped its index in the previous year after reporting 3,750 percent inflation in April.

Sri Lanka's statistics office also stopped a countrywide price index saying the numbers were 'politicized', though Sri Lanka is not a one party state yet but a multi-party democracy.

A Reuters news agency report on July 13, 2007 said Zimbabwe's statistics office was working on a one year survey to find out whether the data was "an accurate reflection of the situation in Zimbabwe.

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"That's just one aspect of what we're doing ... we are also coming up with a new basket. Both are a long way off and I'm reluctant to giv