Sri Lankan protestors, including some celebrities, welcomed the traditional Sinhala and Tamil New Year outside the presidential secretariat by boiling milk and distributing traditional sweets on Thursday, the sixth day of their anti-government stir demanding resignation of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and his powerful family for mishandling the country’s worst economic crisis.
Protesters are occupying the entrance and surroundings of President Gotabaya’s office, holding him responsible for the economic situation.
The protesters on Wednesday rejected Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapksa’s offer for talks and demanded the resignation of President Gotabaya and all members of his family from the government.
The protestors hailed the dawning of the new year at 8.41 am and then boiled milk at the auspicious time of 9.07 am. The spill of milk at the auspicious time is the indication of well being in the New Year. At 10.17 am, the time for the first meal in the new year, they distributed the traditional sweets outside the president’s office where they have been camping since Saturday.
Moreover, Fitch Ratings has downgraded a Us$175 million bond of state-run SriLankan Airlines to ‘C’ from ‘CC’ following a sovereign grade of the Sri Lanka government after it announced a suspension of foreign debt payments.
The 7 percent bond issued by SriLankan matures in 2024 and carries a government guarantee.
We’d also declared bankruptcy the day before, under the new Central Bank governor. Sad news but the right call in terms of acknowledging the reality and opening talks to resolve the crisis. As opposed to his predecessor’s assertion that we were able to meet out debt obligations and that our situation wasn’t dire.
The country’s in a state of emergency with even food being rationed in areas, if not the entire country. Tourism, which was just starting to pick up again after COVID was shot down with the shortages and the war in Ukraine. Small/medium business weren’t able to cope with the daily power cuts and many have gone under. It’s not a good situation.
Sri Lanka is in huge foreign debt for the first time since its independence. The country faces a 12-hour powercut and extreme scarcity of food, including fuel, medicine, and other essential items.
Sri Lanka’s economic crisis is caused in part by a lack of foreign currency, which has meant that the country cannot afford to pay for imports of staple foods and fuel, leading to acute shortages and very high prices
Sometimes it can be interesting to read such things.
But I don’t think many people include this particular information in their analysis.
There are much more meaningful assets.