Facing severe inflation and a shortage of necessities, Sri Lanka is estimated to have as little as US$600 million in foreign exchange reserves, enough for only one week of imports, after two years of Covid-19 hit the tourism industry.
After several demonstrations, the vast majority of cabinet members resigned, and the government lost the majority of parliamentary support.
President Gotabaya Rajapaksa still refuses to step down, while Congress Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardana has warned the country could face famine.
The economic and people’s livelihood dilemma forced the people to take to the streets without a political party organization. Among them, not only the lower class, but also the middle-class who were already prosperous participated. The target was directed at President Japaksa, who had been in power for more than two years, and his high-ranking officials. family member.
"Gota, go home" ("home" refers to the United States, Japaksa once held American citizenship) became the representative slogan of the demonstration.
On April 7, medical staff from the Sri Lankan government hospital held a placard to demonstrate, saying that there was no medicine, equipment, fuel, electricity, or solutions, and demanded the government to step down.
(Associated Press)
Under the impact of the epidemic, Japaksa has long been reluctant to seek help from the World Monetary Fund (IMF) because Sri Lanka has a currency swap agreement from China and food and fuel assistance from India.
However, as the war between Russia and Ukraine further pushes up food and fuel prices, these help will not solve Sri Lanka's economic dilemma. For this reason, Japaksa finally decided to start negotiations with the IMF recently. However, such "urgent craving" However, the political instability caused by the demonstrations hindered emergency negotiations.
The Russian-Ukrainian war hits the "granary of Europe" Global supply shortage may worsen the "broken neon" under the Russian-Ukrainian war
Russia-Ukraine war aggravates the rise in energy and food prices, which will hit economic growth in the long run?
Although the world's attention is now focused on the Russian-Ukrainian war, how to rescue countries such as Sri Lanka that are facing economic and livelihood crises against the background of global inflation and interest rate hikes in rich countries is still a major issue that the international community needs to deal with urgently.
Moreover, Sri Lanka is not the only victim of this global inflation shock...
For details, please read the 312th issue of "Hong Kong 01" Electronic Weekly (April 11, 2022) "
The global impact of the Russian-Ukrainian war in Sri Lanka should not be ignored
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