Sri Lanka’s Economy

 The economy of Sri Lanka is facing its worst economic crisis of all time. In these desperate times, the world bank has agreed to $300m to $600m over the next four months to help Sri Lank buy essential goods and services. Sri Lanka's finance minister Ali Sabri is in Washington Dc to negotiate a rescue package with the IMF. Many neighboring countries have extended their aid to Sri Lanka, India has promised to give $500m to buy fuel and additional $1bn aid from India is under progress. China has also extended their aid of $31m as emergency aid, and 5000 tonnes of rice, medicines, and raw materials. Despite all these aids, Sri Lanka is on the verge of declaring bankruptcy with $7bn out of its $25bn in foreign debt due for payment this year. There has been a shortage of food, medicines and raw materials for months in Sri Lanka. The sharp increase in fuel prices has increased the cost of transportation and prices of other goods and services. Due to the ongoing crisis, there are protests outside the president's office, demanding immediate resignation of the president and his family who are governing the country. Police opened fire on innocent protesters, who were protesting against the increasing prices of fuel, 1 person died and 13 were injured due to the shooting. The government condemned the act and has promised to start an inquiry of the incident. Many people blame China for the crisis, as the debt is accumulated because of the loan that Sri Lanka took from China to build projects but those projects never paid back. At this stage, it seems impossible for Sri Lanka to recover without any international aid.