DCS website down for over seven days

The Department of Census & Statistics Department (DCS) website remains inaccessible for over a week now as the country’s fuel shortages, prompted by the lack of foreign exchange, has hit its web servers. 

But it begs the question as to why the Department hasn’t been able to recover its website for over seven days even after the country having received fuel shipments during the last few days. DCS is the country’s main State-run statistics office, whose website offers wide ranging data sets on economic output, monthly inflation, weekly prices, industrial production, producer inflation, computer literacy, poverty line and many others. 

Economists, analysts and researchers depend on DCS website for official data to write reports and derive data-backed insights. 

But, the website went completely offline on March 31 when the most awaited inflation numbers for the month of March were due to be out. 

Some suspect foul play by the authorities to deny or delay the March inflation numbers, which hit an all-time high, after the Central’ Bank’s botched rupee float sent consumer prices through the roof.

Colombo inflation hit 18.7 percent in the twelve months to March 2022, while the core inflation measured barring often-volatile items such as food, energy and transport rose 13 percent in the same period. 

Food inflation in March was at an eye popping 30.2 percent, up from 25.7 percent in February measured annually.