An unprecedented financial crash in 2022 brought months of consumer goods shortages, with inflation peaking at nearly 70% that year. File | Photo Credit: Reuters Sri Lanka’s consumer prices fell by 2.1% in November, the highest deflation rate recorded by the economically fragile island nation since 1961, official data showed Saturday (November 30, 2024). An … Read more
Sri Lankan president Ranil Wickremesinghe. File Photo | Photo Credit: AP Sri Lanka’s request for a $2.9-billion bailout was approved by the IMF on Monday, the cash-strapped South Asian nation’s President Ranil Wickremesinghe announced. “We are pleased that the IMF Executive Board approved our program, enabling Sri Lanka to access up to $7.0 billion in … Read more
Sri Lanka’s President Ranil Wickremesinghe attends the country’s 75th Independence Day celebrations in Colombo, Sri Lanka on February 4, 2023. | Photo Credit: Reuters Sri Lanka marked its 75th independence anniversary on Saturday as a bankrupt nation, with many citizens angry, anxious and in no mood to celebrate. Many Buddhists and Christian clergy had announced … Read more
External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar. | Photo Credit: ANI External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar’s visit to Colombo on Thursday will focus on “supporting Sri Lanka” in its current economic crisis, government sources said, adding that talks are ongoing in the field of energy security, food security, currency swap arrangements as well as talks about restructuring … Read more
Gotabaya Rajapaksa, once considered a “war hero” by the Sinhalese Buddhist majority for crushing the LTTE and ending the nearly 30-year civil war, is now detested by the same people who dramatically stormed his official residence over Sri Lanka’s worst economic crisis following which he fled the country in the middle of the night. The … Read more
The ancestral home of the Rajapaksas in Hambantota has been set on fire by a group of anti-government protestors, hours after Mahinda Rajapaksa, the patriarch of the powerful clan resigned on Monday in response to mounting demand for his ouster as Sri Lanka’s prime minister. Video footage showed the entire Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa and … Read more
The United States has advised its citizens against travelling to Sri Lanka, pointing to the fuel and medicine shortages, as well as the COVID-19 and terror threats in the Island nation where the worst-ever economic crisis has triggered political unrest. Sri Lanka is facing its worst economic crisis since gaining independence from the UK in … Read more