The Central Bank (CB) will conduct an island-wide consumer finance and socio-economic survey around July which is expected to provide vital information on consumer trends.

Deputy Governor of the CB K.G.D.D. Dheerasinghe told the Business Times this week that this survey, which is conducted every five years, will cover the Northern and Eastern provinces for the first time since 1986. He added that the results of the survey should be released in early 2011.

The CB’s Department of Statistics will be working in conjunction with the Department of Census and Statistics (DCS) which conducted its last island-wide census in 1981. Mr. Dheerasinghe said the CB is waiting for information from the DCS in order to proceed with the survey. The DCS is conducting an island-wide census in 2011, the first time in many years that data will be collected from across the country.

The DCS has already begun some preliminary work in the Northern and Eastern provinces. He added that the CB consumer finance and socio-economic survey will cover household expenditure, income sources, expenditure patterns, employment, education and healh.