Sri Lanka is in a state of turmoil. The country has defaulted on debt and is seeing regular political protests, including some that have turned fatal. Fuel is in short supply, with an ever greater cost. Just this week, gasoline prices rose by more than 20% and diesel by over 35%. Long lines to buy gas to power cars and cooking stoves are now the norm.
Earlier this month, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa replaced his prime minister — his brother Mahinda Rajapaksa — with Ranil Wickremesinghe, after his entire Cabinet was forced to step down. It’s hoped that Wickremesinghe, who has served as prime minister five times before, can hammer out a deal with the International Monetary Fund for billions of dollars in assistance. The country’s new leadership has said it is drastically chopping government expenditure — “cutting to the bone” — and more pain is likely to come.
“Even in the best case scenario, which is an IMF deal, the next few months are going to be pretty bad,” said Mick Moore, a political economist and expert on Sri Lanka at the Institute of Development Studies.