Sri Lanka's president on Wednesday appealed for patience amid the country's worst economic crisis but promised brighter times ahead.
President Ranil Wickremesinghe said in a policy speech after inaugurating a new parliamentary session that he had been forced to make unpopular decisions to salvage the country's finances, including by implementing measures such as higher taxes.
Sri Lanka is effectively bankrupt and has suspended repayment of nearly US$7 billion in foreign debt due this year pending the outcome of talks with the International Monetary Fund for a bailout package.A currency crisis has also led to shortages of essential items like food, fuel, medicine and cooking gas. Massive protests last year forced Wickremesinghe's predecessor, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, to flee the country and resign.
However, the IMF program hinges on China, which owns about 10% of Sri Lanka's foreign debt and has given a two-year debt moratorium starting from 2022. But a visiting U.S. diplomat said last week that China has not done enough to meet IMF standards for loan restructuring. Also Wednesday, government doctors, university teachers and other workers from ports and the power and petroleum sectors held protests, demanding the government to lower income taxes.
Tamil rebels fought for an independent state in the country's northeast for more than 25 years until they were crushed by the military in 2009. More than 100,000 people were killed in the conflict by conservative U.N estimates.
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