Gas Lines And Scuffles: Sri Lanka Faces Humanitarian Crisis

• A few years ago Sri Lanka’s economy was growing strongly enough to provide jobs and financial security for most. It’s now in a state of collapse, dependent on aid from India and other countries as its leaders desperately try to negotiate a bailout with the International Monetary Fund. 
• The situation in Sri Lanka is a complete economic breakdown that has left ordinary people struggling to buy food, fuel, and other necessities and has brought political unrest and violence. 
• Sri Lanka’s crisis is largely the result of staggering economic mismanagement combined with the fallout from the pandemic, which along with the 2019 terrorist attacks devastated its important tourism industry. The COVID-19 crisis also disrupted the flow of payments home from Sri Lankans working abroad. 
• Sri Lanka’s foreign exchange reserves plummeted, leaving it unable to pay for imports or defend its beleaguered currency, the rupee. Ordinary Sri Lankans -- especially the poor -- are paying the price, as they have to wait for days for cooking gas and petrol -- in lines that can extend more than 2 kilometers (1.2 miles). 
• Food price inflation is running at 57%, according to government data, and 70% of Sri Lankan households surveyed by UNICEF last month reported cutting back on food consumption. Many families rely on government rice handouts and donations from charities and generous individuals. The crisis is a crushing blow to Sri Lanka’s middle class, estimated to account for 15% to 20% of the country’s urban population.

(Source: AP News)