You turn to us for voices you won't hear anywhere else.

Sign up for Democracy Now!'s Daily Digest to get our latest headlines and stories delivered to your inbox every day.

Sri Lankan Prime Minister Calls on Citizens to Sacrifice as Economic Crisis Deepens

HeadlineMay 17, 2022

Sri Lanka’s newly sworn-in prime minister has warned his nation is down to a one-day supply of gasoline as a devastating economic crisis is set to deepen. Ranil Wickremesinghe said Monday Sri Lanka’s government will have to print money to pay government wages, even though it will lead to the devaluation of the currency. He said Sri Lanka will seek to privatize its state-owned airline, and called on citizens to accept even deeper austerity measures.

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe: “The next couple of months will be the most difficult ones of our lives. We must prepare ourselves to make some sacrifices and face the challenges of this period. I have no desire to hide the truth and to lie to the public. Although these facts are unpleasant and terrifying, this is the true situation.”

In recent weeks, Sri Lanka has been rocked by protests demanding the ouster of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa amid rolling blackouts, soaring inflation, and shortages of fuel, medicine and food.

The original content of this program is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. Please attribute legal copies of this work to democracynow.org. Some of the work(s) that this program incorporates, however, may be separately licensed. For further information or additional permissions, contact us.

Non-commercial news needs your support

We rely on contributions from our viewers and listeners to do our work.
Please do your part today.
Make a donation
Top