As the Sri Lankan economy went down the hill recently, Ranil Wickremesinghe accepted that economic reforms were meaningless keeping in mind the current economic situation of the country.
President Ranil Wickremesinghe declared that he desires to rebuild the Srilankan economy as the cash-starved nation barely has one. Wickremesinghe made a strong pitch for the new economic model in the times when Sri Lanka is going through its worst economic crisis. The economic crisis in Sri Lanka is not something new though, it has been there since 1948. However, the severe scarcity of foreign exchange reserves has triggered the situation even more.
Addressing the inaugural session of the Sri Lanka Economic Summit 2022 on Monday, Ranil Wickremesinghe said that the country’s doomed economy cannot be set straight through obsolete economic systems. The current economy of the country is very fragile due to the trade balance not being in favor. It is delicate enough to crumble again easily.
Colombo also seeks to secure the release of a 2.9 Billion dollars rescue package from the IMF that it announced in September. Ranil Wickremesinghe claimed that evolving Sri Lanka as a logistics center is the dire need of the hour.
Sri Lanka is nearly bankrupt. It has to repay a foreign debt of $51 billion in total, $28 billion of which in the next five years. Due to the shortage of foreign currencies in April this year, Sri Lanka is facing huge financial and political turmoil. Consequently, the country has been unable to afford imports including fuel, medicines, and fertilizers.