{"id":121402,"date":"2021-12-22T17:05:48","date_gmt":"2021-12-23T00:05:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=121402"},"modified":"2021-12-22T17:05:48","modified_gmt":"2021-12-23T00:05:48","slug":"sri-lanka-inflation-hits-record-high-as-food-crisis-looms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2021\/12\/22\/sri-lanka-inflation-hits-record-high-as-food-crisis-looms\/","title":{"rendered":"Sri Lanka inflation hits record high as food crisis looms"},"content":{"rendered":"

Courtesy Business Recorder<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

COLOMBO: Sri Lanka’s inflation hit a record 11.1 percent in November, official figures showed Wednesday, and authorities warned a worsening economic crisis could prompt further food rationing.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The island’s tourism-dependent economy was hammered by the pandemic and the government imposed a broad import ban to shore up foreign exchange reserves, triggering shortages of essential goods.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Supermarkets have for months been rationing milk powder, sugar, lentils and other essentials as commercial banks ran out of dollars to finance foreign goods.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The shortages have also driven up prices, with food costs up 17 percent from a year ago according to Sri Lanka’s census and statistics department.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sri Lanka hikes fuel prices as economic crisis worsens<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Inflation figures on-year were the highest since the department launched its National Consumer Price Index (NCPI) in 2015.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Authorities may have to impose further food rations and seek foreign aid to help feed the most needy, agriculture ministry secretary Udith Jayasinghe told reporters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We may have to borrow grains such as corn from friendly countries and think of rationing food so that mothers and the sick can be fed,” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Others may have to make sacrifices.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Food shortages have been worsened by the government’s ban on agrochemical imports, which was lifted last month after widespread crop failures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sri Lanka had foreign reserves of just $1.58 billion at the end of November, down from $7.5 billion when President Gotabaya Rajapaksa took office in 2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The central bank has appealed for foreign currency — even loose change that people may have after returning from overseas trips.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Courtesy Business Recorder COLOMBO: Sri Lanka’s inflation hit a record 11.1 percent in November, official figures showed Wednesday, and authorities warned a worsening economic crisis could prompt further food rationing. The island’s tourism-dependent economy was hammered by the pandemic and the government imposed a broad import ban to shore up foreign exchange reserves, triggering shortages […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,102],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-121402","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-business","category-economy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121402","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=121402"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121402\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=121402"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=121402"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=121402"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}