But the after communists swept into power, a process of state intervention and resisting market forces eventually culminated in the dreaded 'cultural revolution', where even Chinese leaders who strayed from the fixed ideology was punished.

"The change in China started with Deng Xiaoping, the leader of the Communist Party when he said being rich is glorious. His statement shook the Communist Party," deputy finance minister, Sarath Amunugama said.

"Our politicians say being poor is glorious.

"These are ideologies of the 19th century and the past. Who wants to suffer?"

Amunugama, a onetime finance minister was speaking at the inauguration of a program for financial journalism training sponsored by Sri Lanka's Securities and Exchange Commission.

Deng was himself a victim of the 'cultural revolution' and gradually came back to power after the death of Mao Zedong.

He introduced a 'socialist market economy' so that the country was able to automatically respond to and benefit from underlying trends both inside the country and abroad.

Deng had originally studied and worked in France where he is said to have learned Marxism.

Under his rule, very basic reforms ranging from allowing peasants to sell surplus farm output in the open market to opening the doors to people associated with pre-revolution 'capitalist' classes the communist party unleashed the spirit of all the Chinese people.

Deng is credited with saying that he did not care whether a cat was white or black as long as it caught mice, a metaphor referring the importance of being productive rather than following a capitalist or communist ideology.

The Communists came to power in China following a period of hyper-inflation under the rule of Kuomintang, which increased public discontent.

It became easier for rulers to make people poor with the advent of paper money central banking and the collapse of the gold standard.

A paper fiat money central bank can be used to print money and steal the real incomes of people through inflation, taking away the purchasing power of their salaries and savings secretly, instead of charging taxes that are clearly visible to everyone.

People and enterprises also cannot progress unless the economy is stable, with low inflation, which makes low interest rates possible.

China became an export led industrial economy with low inflation which allowed it to have stable exchange rates and remain competitive.

Sri Lanka had an open economy from the time of the country's ancient kings.

But after a central bank was set up in 1950, money printing created 'foreign exchange shortages', leading to ever tighter exchange controls, import duties, licensing and 'import substitution' which eventually culminated in the 1970s closed economy.

Sri Lanka started opening in 1977, leading the South Asian region, but it was not able to contain inflation, as the government resorted to central bank credit (printed money) to bridge budget deficits, and the currency continued to weaken.

But rulers that print money to give subsidies can maintain the loyalty of their subjects as long the source of inflation can be blamed on some reason other than the central bank. A culture of glorifying poverty can also help.

Under communist party rule, money supply expansion as means of bridging budget deficits was not common in China. Learning a bitter lesson, remnants of the Kuomingtan who fled to modern Taiwan have also kept inflation low.

In 1994, after inflation spiked to 24 percent in China, from around 6 percent two years earlier, a specific budget law was brought that prohibited government borrowing from the People’s Bank of China, the country's central bank.

An earlier 1988 inflation surge was also attributed by analysts to People's Bank financing of the budget deficit.

In the early 1960s inflation also spiked, which was blamed on a policy of People's Bank of China financing of state enterprise working capital.