Sri Lanka is in the midst of its worst financial crisis in seven decades
\nOnline
\nCOLOMBO
\nSri Lanka is \u201cbankrupt,\u201d Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said Tuesday, as the country suffers its worst financial crisis in decades, leaving millions struggling to buy food, medicine and fuel.
\nWickremesinghe told lawmakers that negotiations with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to revive the country\u2019s \u201ccollapsed\u201d economy are \u201cdifficult,\u201d because the South Asian nation of 22 million has entered the talks as a bankrupt country, rather than a developing one.
\n\u201cWe are now participating in the negotiations as a bankrupt country. Therefore, we have to face a more difficult and complicated situation than previous negotiations,\u201d Wickremesinghe said in parliament.
\n\u201cDue to the state of bankruptcy our country is in, we have to submit a plan on our debt sustainability to (the IMF) separately,\u201d he added. \u201cOnly when they are satisfied with that plan can we reach an agreement at the staff level. This is not a straightforward process.\u201d
\nSri Lanka is in the midst of its worst financial crisis in seven decades, after its foreign exchange reserves plummeted to record lows, with dollars running out to pay for essential imports including food, medicine and fuel.
\nSchools have been suspended and fuel has been limited to essential services. In several major cities, including the commercial capital, Colombo, hundreds continue to queue for hours to buy fuel, sometimes clashing with police and the military as they wait.
\nOn Sunday Sri Lanka\u2019s energy minister, Kanchana Wijesekera, said the country had less than a day\u2019s worth of fuel left.
\n\u201cIn terms of fuel and food, our country was going to have to face this crisis at some point in time. Fuel was scarce. Food prices went up,\u201d he said, adding international crises like Russia\u2019s war in Ukraine have made things worse.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Sri Lanka is in the midst of its worst financial crisis in seven decades Online COLOMBO Sri Lanka is \u201cbankrupt,\u201d Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said Tuesday, as the country suffers its worst financial crisis in decades, leaving millions struggling to buy food, medicine and fuel. Wickremesinghe told lawmakers that negotiations with the International Monetary Fund […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":270201,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[6],"tags":[8753,8250,793],"class_list":{"0":"post-270189","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-bankrupt","9":"tag-ranil-wickremesinghe","10":"tag-sri-lanka"},"yoast_head":"\n