Posted on 06/22/2022 11:30:43 AM PDT by Red Badger
Sri Lanka’s prime minister is increasing efforts to revive the country’s “completely collapsed” economy amid a lack of foreign exchange reserves and severe shortages of essential items.
“We are now facing a far more serious situation beyond the mere shortages of fuel, gas, electricity, and food. Our economy has faced a complete collapse,” Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe told Parliament on June 22.
“It is no easy task to revive a country with a completely collapsed economy, especially one that is dangerously low on foreign reserves,” he said.
Sri Lanka will hold a credit aid conference with India, China, and Japan for loan packages. Wickremesinghe said the goal is to reach a “general consensus” on the lending processes as each country has its own system for granting loans.
“However, there have been some conflicts and disagreements between us in the recent past. We are working towards resolving these and fostering friendly relations once again,” he added.
The government also will seek help from the United States, with representatives from the U.S. Treasury Department visiting Sri Lanka next week.
Australia said it would provide Sri Lanka with a $50 million development-assistance package following Wickremesinghe’s meeting with Australia’s Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil on June 20.
Wickremesinghe said that Sri Lanka has received a $4 billion credit line from India and requested additional loan assistance from the neighboring country.
A top-level Indian delegation is expected to meet with Sri Lankan leaders on June 23 to discuss extending an additional $500 million credit line to Sri Lanka for the purchase of oil, local media Daily Mirror reported.
“But even India will not be able to continuously support us in this manner. Even their assistance has its limits. On the other hand, we too must have a plan to repay these loans. These are not charitable donations,” Wickremesinghe added.
He said that negotiations with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) had made progress, with the government expecting to reach an official level agreement with the IMF by the end of July.
“If we receive the IMF seal of approval, the world will once again trust us. It will help us to secure loan assistance as well as low-interest loans from other countries in the world,” he said.
“The Ceylon Petroleum Corporation is $700 million in debt. As a result, no country or organization in the world is willing to provide fuel to us. They are even reluctant to provide fuel for cash,” he added.
Sri Lanka also has requested that China amend the terms of a $1.5 billion yuan-denominated swap facility that it signed last year, which stipulates that the fund can only be used provided that Sri Lanka has enough foreign reserves to last three months.
The country is on the verge of bankruptcy, with its foreign exchange reserves plummeting by 70 percent in the past two years. The government stated on April 12 that it was suspending foreign debt repayments.
About 10 percent of Sri Lanka’s $51 billion external debt is owed to China, and the government had requested help from China to restructure its debt obligations.
Wickremesinghe said that Sri Lanka wouldn’t be experiencing its worst economic crisis in decades if the government had acted sooner.
“If steps had at least been taken to slow down the collapse of the economy at the beginning, we would not be facing this difficult situation today. But we lost out on this opportunity. We are now seeing signs of a possible fall into the very bottom,” he said.
Thousands of Sri Lankans have taken to the streets to protest the government’s mishandling of the country’s economic crisis, leading to the resignation of then-Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa on May 9.
The country’s unprecedented economic crisis has left millions of its people in need of life-saving aid, with the severe shortages of essential medicines and frequent power cuts jeopardizing the country’s health care system.
The United Nations launched a worldwide public appeal on June 9 to provide $47.2 million of aid between June and September to 1.7 million people whose livelihoods and food security are most at risk.
Aldgra Fredly is a freelance writer based in Malaysia, covering Asia Pacific news for The Epoch Times.
Coming to an American country near you.
that aside, who would have guessed that Trump was in charge in Sri Lanka?
The news we want to see:
"The government also will seek help from the United States, by demanding that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris step down and leave the White House for the good of the world."
Ceylon was stable and prosperous enough 30 years ago. What must have happened is millions moved out of rural living and farming situations and into shanty town cities.
Combination of being sucked in by China’s B+R initiative, and a profoundly stupid attempt to convert the entire national agriconomy to organic, with a resulting huge loss of product and foreign exchange, from tea and rice especially. Ad in the usual corruption and there you are.
Who’s coming to help us when we fall?
Hell, just print more money!
That’s what we do.
Don’t hold your breath.
They should start a war with Russia. The Biden administration will send them all the billions they want.
Don’t worry, this is perfectly normal and expected. Whenever you get in bed with Central Bankers using fiat currency, this will happen every time.
Like dominoes
America’s future under the left-wingers.
The first domino.
I certainly hope the country doesn’t rely on a large percentage of imported food stuffs. This is a bad year to tap out.
Nothing a few hundred billion in additional American debt can’t fix up.
Oh and we’ll also be bringing a few million Sri Lankens here, for “humanitarian reasons.” They’ll need financial help to make it in America, for at least the first few generations.
Revelation 6:5 And when he had opened the third seal, I heard the third beast say, Come and see. And I beheld, and lo a black horse; and he that sat on him had a pair of balances in his hand. 6 And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts say, A measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny; and see thou hurt not the oil and the wine. 7 And when he had opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth beast say, Come and see. 8 And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth.
“Wickremesinghe said that Sri Lanka wouldn’t be experiencing its worst economic crisis in decades if the government had acted sooner.“
There won’t really be very much in the way of want among the government classes…so… it’s like that tree falling in the forest… unless the people round their elites and eat them…
The biden green energy policies pose the same kind of threat to the US economy. We are destroying out ability to create energy faster than it is possible to replace it with fantasy renewables. It will cause shortages and extreme inflation, shortages, etc...
The model for the rest of us.
Those times are surely coming
Need a 7 year peace deal
And the rest of the Four Horsemen follow
The rich and the powerful will try to hide in their bunkers
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