Sri Lanka, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, who took office on Thursday, is heading for its worst economic crisis in 70 years. The petrol will run out on Wednesday and the central bank will have to print money to continue paying the officials.
Wickremesinghe said in a televised speech Monday evening that the country urgently needs $75 million in foreign money to continue importing key products. In addition, money has to be printed.
“Unwillingly, I am obliged to have money printed so that civil servants’ wages and essential goods and services can be paid,” the new prime minister said Monday. “Although we have to be careful with that, as printing money undercuts the value of the rupee.”
Chaos at gas stations
There is also a privatization of the national airline Sri Lankan Airlines on the table. It recorded a loss of 45 billion Sri Lankan rupees (123 million euros) last year. With this privatization, the prime minister hopes to raise some extra money.
In the meantime, in the capital Colombo, it is chaos at the gas stations. “We currently only have one day of petrol, the next few months are going to be the hardest of our lives,” Wickremesinghe said. According to him, deliveries from India could supply a few more people with petrol in the coming days, but after that it’s really done.
Inflation will rise sharply
Sri Lanka has been hit hard by the corona pandemic. The economy fell by 3.6 percent in 2020, but recovered in 2021 with a growth of 3.7 percent. However, inflation rose by 6 percent in 2021. In March of this year, it even reached almost 14 percent. This, in combination with too little money from abroad, has led to shortages of medicines, petrol and other essential items, among other things.
According to Wickremesinghe, the situation will “get worse before it gets better”, but there will be no hunger crisis. He makes sure that every family gets three meals a day.
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