Essay about Sri Lanka Economic Crisis

On March 31st hundreds of protesters gathered outside Sri Lankan president Gotabaya Rajpaksha's residence in Colombo. 

Many in the crowd were holding posters with anti-government slogans and were chanting gotta go home in sinhala 

The protesters demanded that the government stepped down immediately for mishandling the country's economy a day after president raja paksha declared a state of emergency 

Sri Lanka is witnessing its worst economic crisis since independence, the island nation had announced a nationwide 13-hour daily powercut from March 31st there is an acute shortage of food, fuel, and cooking gas. 

Several hospitals have had to suspend routine surgeries as they have run out of life-saving medicines authorities had to cancel examinations for millions of students due to a shortage of paper 

During the first wave of the pandemic, thousands of Sri Lankan laborers working in several West Asian countries were forced to return home 

The pandemic meant that the garment factories and tea estates in sri Lanka could not function 

All the key foreign exchange earning sectors such as exports, remittances, and tourism, were brutally hit in response the government adopted various policy decisions that were widely deemed ill-advised 

Like the last year's blanket ban on chemical fertilizers that crippled the agricultural sector.

The Russia-Ukraine war has also added to the country's problems Sri Lanka is dependent on the two countries for tourism and exports, it also imports almost half of its wheat and sunflower oil from them 

In August 2021 the government declared emergency regulations for the distribution of essential food items to save dollars this led to consequent market irregularities and reported holding by the end of 2021 the country's foreign reserves plummeted to 1.6 billion dollars 

The country's foreign reserves stood at 2.31 billion dollars at the end of February 

Sri Lanka has to repay foreign debt totaling nearly seven billion dollars this year 

President raja paksha recently said that the country will incur an import bill of 22 billion dollars this year resulting in a trade deficit of 10 billion dollars 

The country is in talks with the international monetary fund for possible loan assistance 

India has extended assistance totaling 2.4 billion dollars which includes a 400 million dollar rbi currency swap a 500 million dollar loan deferment and credit lines for importing food, fuel, and medicines 

China is also considering a fresh request from Colombo for 2.5 billion dollars in assistance experts say that Sri Lanka's recovery will neither be fast nor easy.

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