Savings evaporate, businesses face closure and the Sri Lankan poor struggle to eat as value of the rupee plummets.
Highlights
- The value of the Sri Lankan rupee has plummeted by 30 per cent against the U.S.
- dollar this year, making it the worst-performing currency in the world.
- Food prices have doubled in less than a year, with onions, dhal and rice costing double what they used to.
- In middle-class neighbourhoods, owners of cafés, bakeries and salons have had to let go of staff and are facing the prospect of closing shop altogether.
- President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s government unable to pay for fuel imports and other essentials.
- Fuel shortages have resulted in rolling electricity blackouts and ground transport in parts of the country to a halt.