Sri Lanka’s misery should serve as a warning to the rest of the world in dealing with the global food and fuel crisis, the United Nations said on July 7.
The cash-strapped country declared bankruptcy on Tuesday after months of severe fuel and food crisis. Sri Lanka has run out of gasoline, while millions of its people are in need of life-saving aid.
The U.N. Development Programme (UNDP) said that other countries already burdened by the economic fallout of COVID-19 could face a similar situation as Sri Lanka, as the Russia–Ukraine war continues.
“We’re witnessing a tragic series of events that are unfolding in Sri Lanka right now that should be a warning to anyone who thinks that it is up to countries themselves to figure out how to deal with this crisis,” said Achim Steiner, the UNDP’s administrator.
Many countries experienced 36 continuous months of shock, beginning with the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russia–Ukraine war, which affected global food and energy supply.
The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization said the number of people affected by hunger globally rose from 46 million in 2020 to 828 million last year.
Sri Lanka Goes Bankrupt
Sri Lanka defaulted on its debt for the first time in May. The country has sought bailout packages from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and loan packages from its major lending partners, including Japan, China, and India.Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe declared Sri Lanka bankrupt on July 5. He said the government will need to finalize and submit its debt restructuring and sustainability plan to the IMF by August.
![Sri Lanka's new prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe (C) visits a Buddhist temple after his swearing in ceremony in Colombo on May 12, 2022. (Ishara S. Kodikara/AFP via Getty Images)](/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fimg.theepochtimes.com%2Fassets%2Fuploads%2F2022%2F05%2F13%2FGettyImages-1240619816-600x400.jpg&w=1200&q=75)
“We are now participating in the negotiations as a bankrupt country. Therefore, we have to face a more difficult and complicated situation than in previous negotiations,” Wickremesinghe told parliament.
“Once a staff-level agreement is reached, this will be submitted to the IMF Board of Directors for approval. But due to the state of bankruptcy our country is in, we have to submit a plan on our debt sustainability to them separately.”
Wickremesinghe said that Sri Lanka’s total debt has increased from 1.7 trillion rupees ($4.66 billion) in 2021 to 21.6 trillion rupees ($59 billion) in March this year, with $3.4 billion of debt maturing between June and December.
Sri Lanka’s Misery
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.![Doctors and nurses of the Lady Ridgeway Children's hospital hold placards during a silent demonstration against shortages of medicines in Colombo on April 19, 2022. (Ishara S. Kodikara/AFP via Getty Images)](/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fimg.theepochtimes.com%2Fassets%2Fuploads%2F2022%2F06%2F12%2FGettyImages-1240081827-1200x801-600x401.jpg&w=1200&q=75)
Christian Skoog, the UNICEF representative in Sri Lanka, said the current crisis is “stretching families to their limits” and that two in five infants in Sri Lanka weren’t fed the minimum appropriate diet.
Sri Lanka already had the second-highest child malnutrition rate in South Asia before the economic crisis. The country’s food inflation stood at 57.4 percent in May, with widespread food and fuel shortages, as well as daily power cuts.