Sri Lanka's economic crisis looks to have finally toppled President Gotabaya Rajapaksa.
Rajapaksa has not commented directly but he plans to step down on July 13, the country's parliamentary speaker said on Saturday, bowing to intense pressure after a violent day of protests in which demonstrators stormed the president's official residence and set fire to the prime minister's home in Colombo.
That wiped out much of Sri Lanka's revenue base, most notably from the lucrative tourism industry, while remittances from nationals working abroad dropped and were further sapped by an inflexible foreign exchange rate. The crisis has crippled Sri Lanka, once seen as a model for a developing economy. Fuel shortages have led to long queues at filling stations as well as frequent blackouts, and hospitals have run short of medicine. Runaway inflation reached 54.6 percent last month and could rise to 70 percent, the central bank has said.Despite the rapidly deteriorating economic environment, the Rajapaksa government initially held off talks with the IMF.
India has extended billions of dollars in loans to help pay for vital supplies. In all, New Delhi says it has provided support worth over $3.5 billion this year.
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