The pandemic has been hard on everyone but for Sri Lanka, the virus brought with it the worst financial crisis the country has seen in years. As per a report published by Bloomberg Sri Lanka's inflation rate surged past Pakistan and is now the fastest in Asia.
As per a Bloomberg survey, consumer prices rose 14.2 percent in January from a year earlier faster than the median estimate of 13.2 while the average annual inflation rate rose to 6.9 percent with the rise in prices the central bank was pushed to raise its main interest rate for the first time in three meetings this month.
Now the island nation's foreign reserves were at about 3.1 billion dollars in December with almost 7 billion of overseas debt due for repayment in 2022.
Sri Lanka's economic woes have made headlines the last few months, failed harvests, import restrictions conserve dwindling foreign exchange reserves and high global prices of key commodities have made life difficult for Sri Lankans.
Sri Lanka recorded its highest ever inflation rates for two consecutive months and that has now resulted in being the highest ever inflation rates recorded in the region comes with little to no surprise especially at a time where the country has been engaging in excessive money printing as well as spy rocketing prices of goods and services especially that of food.
Now the future here in Sri Lanka especially in the coming months does not look quite bright with a lot of experts expecting shortages of various points ranging from food to foil.