Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa fled his official residence in Colombo on Saturday morning before thousands of protesters stormed it, then announced later in the day that he would resign on July 13.
The island nation has been suffering from unprecedented shortages of essential goods (energy, medicine, food) for several months, while its 22 million inhabitants suffer from soaring inflation and prolonged power outages. The country, which is in default for the first time in its history, has been preparing its population for austerity measures since last spring in order to receive aid from the International Monetary Fund (IMF). An economic crisis that quickly turned into a social and political crisis. For months, protesters camped outside the presidency’s headquarters in Colombo to demand the resignation of the president, whom they accused of mismanagement.
Jean-Joseph Bouillot, researcher specializing in the Indian economy and IRIS’s developing countries advisor, returns Le Figaro at the beginning of this unprecedented economic, social and political crisis. A scenario that, according to the expert, could affect several other developing economies around the world, weakened by the effects of the war in Ukraine.
LE FIGARO. – Since April, Sri Lanka has been in default for the first time in its history and its economy is at a standstill “total collapse”in the words of the Prime Minister. What was the reason for such bankruptcy?
Jean-Joseph Boileau. – As the great financier Warren Buffett described it, it is when the tide passes that we see the swimmers who are naked. Let me explain: the war in Ukraine revealed…
Source: Le Figaro
