Sri Lanka leader says IMF agreement pushed back after unrest
Sri Lanka’s president said Saturday that an agreement with the International Monetary Fund to help pull the bankrupt nation out of its economic crisis has been pushed back to September because of unrest over the past weeks.
President Ranil Wickremesinghe, in his first speech since he was elected by Parliament on July 20, said even though he as the prime minister had aimed to reach an agreement by early August, it has now been pushed back by a month.
Wickremesinghe was elected to complete the five-year term of his predecessor Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who fled to Singapore after protesters angry over economic hardships stormed his official residence and occupied several key government buildings.
Wickremesinghe said talked with the IMF on a rescue package had not moved since those incidents.
Sri Lanka announced in April that it is suspending repaying its foreign loans because of a serious shortage of foreign currency. The island nation owes $51 billion in foreign debt, of which $28 billion must be paid by 2027.
The currency crisis led to a shortage of many critical imported items like fuel, medicine and cooking gas.
Wickremesinghe on Friday wrote to 225 lawmakers in Parliament to join him in a multi-party government to face the crisis. He reiterated the call Saturday saying that blaming former leaders will not solve the problem but everyone should get together to stop the country from falling further.
Wickremesinghe, a six-time prime minister and veteran politician, is unpopular because he is supported by majority lawmakers who are backed by the powerful Rajapaksa family, which has ruled Sri Lanka for most of the past two decades. Many accuse Wickremesinghe of protecting the Rajapaksas, who are widely blamed for corruption and misrule that led to the crisis.
Wickremesinghe has empowered the military to dismantle protest camps that had been set up near the president’s office for more than 100 days. Several people including protest leaders have been arrested in the crackdown.
(AP)
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Not only that. Avajahakayas participated in the insurrection called ‘Aragalaya’ , so far deprived in the region of 5-10 millions of US$ that would have come through tourism. In the West, after 2 years break due to COVID tourists are on the move and spend big for the same reason. Of course there is a fuel shortage, but could have managed by prioritising those vehicles carrying tourists since they have already provided foreign exchange necessary for buying oil.
Hope it is September 2022. So what are we going to do until September. Do you have any ideas or plans other than a little invention from Devine power, worshiping trees and gods.
Ranjith,
If you wanna be a frog in the well like, Modadasa, Rajitha S, Fonseka, Sirisena etc, you are free to do so.
SL is well on its way towards recovery. Exports in Jun 2022 was USD 1.21 billion; for the ist half of 2022, exports were USD 6.41 billion.
This marks an increase of 12.4% for year-on-year.
Vegetable prices dropped by 50% in retail last week.
The crisis will be over by end Dec 2022 and then, SL begins the build-up under Prezzo RW for the remaining two years of his term.
I guess doing more Aragalaya in Galle Face, more marches with slogans and placards waving according to what preached by many parties in the parliament with a handful or even fewer MPs. A general election against even the election commissioner’s advice seems to be capable of magically solving all problems, even if the election returns a bunch of completely inexperienced, uneducated bunch thanks to SL voters’ kneejerk reactions and even more fragmented hung parliament where nobody can do a thing but bickering and finger pointing.
Roxie. So you recon that SL is well on its way towards recovery and all will be ok Dec 2022. I Lets hope so. By the way I don’t expect daft people like Modadasa, Rajitha S, Fonseka, Sirisena etc to be in the political field either.
Clearly this was what the insidious anti-Sri Lanka movements wanted, hiding behind the so called “peaceful protesters.”
Clearly there are undercover LTTE sympathizers (and other extremists) acting here, who, without revealing their true identity or designs, have been befriending and hoodwinking many idiotic and gullible majority Sinhalese to help them with their objectives and in this case, it appears that a few voter-rejected, fringe political parties and persons in the parliament (now don’t we know who that can be? lol) have also been roped in. Indeed, when we look back and see what has been happening over the past 3 months, it sure appears that there is a massive anti-SL insurgent/terrorist movement underway in SL, something that is largely going unchecked today, and it is urgently incumbent upon the govt of the day to ensure it is neutralized systematically and methodically, but in short order, if SL is to survive as a nation.