Rising prices have further complicated people’s lives. In addition to rising prices, there are occasional shortages in the market. After such a shortage, all those products return to the market with a two to three times increase in price. After the recent gas shortage, people are now worried that the gas they bought after waiting in line for an hour will explode. Even after appointing a committee to look into this, the current story is that the gas cylinders explode due to a change in the composition of the gas.
The next organic play is over. There is no dancing and no drumming today. Farmers say that this time food production has been halved due to the lack of fertilizer. If that happens, many nations will have to import vegetables and rice in the future. But where is the dollar for that. There is a situation where even essential commodities including fuel, food and medicine cannot be paid for. Those who go abroad for necessities do not have dollars to carry. There is a situation where they cannot even withdraw the money in their account. With the shortage of goods, perhaps even those who have cash in hand have no way to buy what they want. On the other hand, the prices of goods have skyrocketed so much that the poor have no way to buy them. The reason for the increase in the price of goods is that goods do not come to the market and money is printed indefinitely. Since this government came to power a sum of 3.6 trillion rupees has been printed.
The Colombo Consumer Price Index is a measure used to measure inflation in Sri Lanka. According to a press release issued by the Statistics Department of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka on November 30, 2021, surface inflation, as measured by the annual point change in the Colombo Consumer Price Index, has increased from 7.6% in October 2021 to 9.9% in November 2021. In November 2021, the CPC The monthly change in the index was 2.57%. This was due to an increase of 1.76% and 0.81% in the prices of items in both the food and non-food categories, respectively.
In November 2021, prices of vegetables, rice, milk powder, big onions, chicken and fresh fish rose under the food category. In the non-food category, prices of items in the subcategories, mainly housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels (LP gas, maintenance / reconstruction) and various goods and services (haircuts and shaving), November 2021 Has increased during the month. For example, let’s buy vegetables this week. Drumsticks – Rs. 400.00, Cucumbers – Rs. 200.00, Leeks – Rs. 500.00, Beetroot – Rs. 500.00, Cabbage – Rs. 600.00, Carrots – Rs. 543.00, Beans – Rs. 643.00, Batu – Rs. 443.00
These are just some of the goal setting shareware that you can use on a regular basis. In our country where rice is the staple food of the majority, some vegetables are cooked in the rice. It is difficult for everyone to bear such a large increase in vegetable prices. On the other hand, due to the increase in the price of food items, the prices of cooked food sold in restaurants / hotels have to be increased several times. Then it will be very difficult for those businesses to make a profit. This raises the issue of maintaining good food quality. In addition to food, other essential commodities are considered but the prices are increasing day by day.
The former Minister of Health states that due to the current dollar crisis 27 essential medicines are not available in hospitals today. Looking at all these situations it is clear that the government has no economic plan. According to Trade Minister Bandula Gunawardena this instability has been created by an invisible force. In this way, mustard is the refuge for the poor people.
-Yashodhara Weerasinghe-