COLOMBO: Sri Lanka's cash-strapped government will need at least $5 billion in the next six months to maintain basic standards of living, including some $3.3 billion for fuel imports, the country's prime minister told parliament.
"Only establishing economic stability not enough, we have to restructure the entire economy," said Ranil Wickremesinghe, who is working to prepare an interim budget to balance Sri Lanka's battered public finances. The island nation of 22 million is suffering its worst economic crisis in seven decades, with a shortage of foreign exchange stalling essential imports.
Seeks UN help over food scarcity
The country is seeking urgent United Nations help to build a stockpile of essential foods, the prime minister’s office said, after authorities warned of looming starvation. Acute shortages of food, fuel and other essential goods, along with record inflation and rolling blackouts, have inflicted widespread misery in the island nation’s unprecedented economic crisis.
Scarce supplies of petrol, diesel and fertiliser have made it difficult for farmers to grow crops, while the agricultural sector is still reeling from a disastrous organic policy that kneecapped yields last year.
The UN Food and Agriculture Organization is now planning a “food crisis response plan” to shore up reserves and will also offer more funds for urban agriculture, the PM's office said in a statement.
Parliamentary speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardana warned in April that Sri Lanka was facing “very acute food shortages and starvation”.
Around half of Sri Lanka’s rice production was lost last year, and the latest cultivation season which started last month has been disrupted because of fertiliser shortages.
Sri Lanka’s painful economic crunch was sparked by a shortage of foreign currency, leaving traders unable to pay for critical imports, including fertiliser.
