Metro Observer Daily

  COLOMBO, June 7 (Reuters) - Sri Lanka will need $5 billion over the next six months to ensure basic living standards, and is renegotiating the terms of a yuan-denominated swap worth $1.5 billion with China so as to fund essential imports, the prime minister said on Tuesday. The island nation's worst economic crisis in seven decades led to a shortage of foreign exchange that stalled imports of essential items such as fuel, medicine and fertiliser, provoking devaluation, street protests and a change of government. To tide over the turmoil, Sri Lanka will need about $3.3 billion for fuel imports, $900 million for food, $250 million for cooking gas and $600 million more for fertiliser this year, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe told parliament. The central bank has estimated the economy will contract by 3.5% in 2022, Wickremesinghe said, but added that he was confident growth could return with a strong reform package, debt restructuring and international support. "Only establ...

  The reluctant  resignation of Mahinda Rajapakse  as Prime Minister of Sri Lanka on Monday came three days after his brother president Gotabaya Rajapaksa reportedly asked him at a cabinet meeting to step down and pave the way for an interim government with the participation of opposition parties.