COLOMBO (Reuters) – Sri Lanka’s parliament met again on Tuesday for the first time since last week’s violence and the prime minister’s resignation. The new prime minister warned that the country’s economy was in bad shape and that it only had one more day of gasoline.
The new prime minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe, said in a televised speech on Monday that the island country must confront an “unpleasing and frightening reality.”
“Currently, we barely have enough gasoline for one day. The next several months will be the most challenging of our life “he remarked.
From $7.5 billion in November 2019 to close to nothing in the next few days, the country’s foreign reserves would need to be replenished with $75 million to keep the economy afloat, he said. Essential medications had run out.
The paucity of fuel, which is mostly imported, might result in power outages lasting up to 15 hours each day.
Wickremesinghe said he planned to ask for help from other countries, put Sri Lankan Airlines up for sale, and ask parliament for permission to increase the amount of Treasury notes from 3 trillion rupees to 4 trillion rupees ($11.27 billion).
“For a little time, our future will be more challenging than the harsh times we have already been through, “he remarked.”
More than a month of mostly peaceful protests about how the government handles the economy turned violent last week when supporters of former Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa attacked an anti-government protest camp in Colombo, the commercial hub.
The following days of skirmishes between protestors, government supporters, and police resulted in nine deaths and over three hundred injuries.
Rajapaksa then resigned, allowing his younger brother, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, to assume the presidency.
The COVID-19 epidemic, rising oil prices, and the Rajapaksas’ populist tax cuts all led to Sri Lanka’s worst economic crisis since it became independent in 1948.
Persistent foreign cash shortages have caused high inflation and shortages of medication, petrol, and other necessities, prompting hundreds to take to the streets in protest in the Indian Ocean country, where China and India are vying for dominance.
Wickremesinghe’s four cabinet choices to far have all come from the Rajapaksas’ Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna party, much to the chagrin of demonstrators who want to exclude the family from national politics.
He has yet to disclose important ministries, including the vital position of the finance minister, who would negotiate financial aid with the International Monetary Fund.
Ali Sabry, the country’s former finance minister, talked with the international lender early on, but he and Mahinda Rajapaksa both quit last week.
(1 US dollar = 355.000 Sri Lankan rupees)
