The Asian Development Bank has selected Sri Lanka as one of the test beds, for a survey on economic data gathering based on purchasing power equivalence.
The project is part of the global International Comparison Programme (ICP) to calculate purchasing power parities (PPP) of countries.rn
rnThis will allow comparisons between countries of the levels of economic aggregates, the gross domestic product (GDP), free of price and exchange rate distortions.rn
rnThe study hopes to set up a system to compare GDP and its components by converting it into a single currency by PPP rather than exchange rates.rn
rnBy establishing purchasing power equivalence, which measures the price in local currency in a reference country, PPP measures the price in local currency of the same quantity of goods and services that can be purchased for a common unit of currency (typically a US dollar).rn
rnIt requires collecting prices of goods and services that are both comparable across countries and representative of the cons