Patterns of expenditure and saving process in rural families in Sri Lanka: a study of Nawagamuwa village in Kegalle District

Abstract

Instability of the economy and the cost of living directly affect the patterns of a person?s expenditure and savings. This study pays attention to rural areas and investigates how these factors affected their income, expenses and savings. It is necessary to evaluate how society accepts these drastic changes, according to their tradition. As a result of economic modernization, money plays a vital role in both the rural and urban sectors in Sri Lanka. In fact the rural sector also provides some monetary savings, private as well as public. The public savings include taxes and revenues raised by the government in the rural sector and spent on development projects either in the rural or urban sectors. No data is available on monetary savings in peasant societies. Well to do peasants and traders save money in rural areas. Unfortunately poor peasants are unable to save money due to the exorbitant prices of essential goods in the country. People save money for different purpose. In order to save money it is necessary to limit the expenditure for secondary needs. One of the main objectives of the present study is to find out whether the peasants have modified their expenditure of money in order to save some money for their future expectations. The study has been conducted in selected agricultural villages in the Kegalle District and follows the case study method. Both the interview and questionnaire methods were used collect relevant data.