Courtesy Gulf Times

Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe (right) hoists the national flag during the Sri Lanka’s 76th Independence Day celebrations at the Galle Face Green in Colombo yesterday.

Cash-strapped Sri Lanka is gradually” emerging from its worst economic crisis after the austerity of an IMF bailout, the president said yesterday in a speech to mark independence day. Recalling the indignity of being labelled a financially bankrupt country”, President Ranil Wickremesinghe dispensed with the customary annual address in favour of a brief statement. The island nation defaulted on its $46bn foreign debt in 2022 after a foreign exchange wipeout left it unable to import food, fuel and other essentials. Sri Lanka saw months of civil unrest at the peak of the economic crisis, culminating in the ouster of then-president Gotabaya Rajapaksa when thousands of protesters stormed his home. The International Monetary Fund released the first tranche of a $2.9bn four-year bailout loan to Sri Lanka in March last year under a reform programme that saw taxes raised and prices sharply increased.