Sri Lanka’s prime minister and president will resign after protesters stormed their homes. How did it get to this?
Sri Lanka’s president and its new prime minister have agreed to resign after protesters stormed their homes in anger over the government’s handling of the nation’s severe economic crisis.
But protests have been going on for months.
Let’s quickly recap why Sri Lanka’s economy is in crisis and have a look back at the events that lead to this conclusion.
Why has Sri Lanka’s economy tanked?
Economists say the crisis stems from years of mismanagement and corruption — with conditions deteriorating for the past few years.
In 2019, Easter suicide bombings at churches and hotels killed more than 260 people, hurting the tourism sector.
In that same year, the government pushed through the largest tax cuts in Sri Lankan history.
Those tax cuts were recently reversed, but only after creditors downgraded Sri Lanka’s ratings, blocking it from borrowing more money.
Then tourism was hit hard yet again during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The government banned imports of chemical fertilisers in April 2021, which caught farmers by surprise and decimated staple rice crops, driving prices higher.
Meanwhile, the war in Ukraine has recently pushed prices of food and oil up even higher.
How bad is it?
The Sri Lankan government owes $51 billion and is unable to make interest payments on its loans, let alone put a dent in the amount borrowed.
The currency has collapsed by 80 per cent, making imports more expensive and worsening inflation, with food costs rising by 57 per cent, according to official data.
The result is a country hurtling towards bankruptcy, with hardly any money to import fuel, milk, cooking gas and toilet paper.
What happened in the build-up?
March 31:
April 1:
April 3:
- Sri Lanka’s entire cabinet of ministers resigns — including the president’s brother Basil Rajapaksa, who was serving as finance minister
- Another of the president’s brothers, the prime minister, continues on
- A nationwide social media ban is introduced, blocking access to platforms like Facebook and Twitter to stop protesters organising rallies — it lasts for nearly 15 hours
April 9:
- Protests escalate, with sit-in demonstrations outside the president’s office calling for his resignation
May 6:
May 9:
May 11:
May 13:
June 22:
July 5:
July 8
- Police impose a curfew in Colombo, which was later lifted after lawyers and opposition politicians denounced it as illegal
July 9:
ABC with Wires
