{"id":122499,"date":"2022-02-01T00:02:13","date_gmt":"2022-02-01T06:02:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=122499"},"modified":"2022-01-31T16:54:34","modified_gmt":"2022-01-31T23:54:34","slug":"sri-lankas-inflation-accelerates-to-asias-fastest-on-fx-crunch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2022\/02\/01\/sri-lankas-inflation-accelerates-to-asias-fastest-on-fx-crunch\/","title":{"rendered":"Sri Lanka\u2019s Inflation Accelerates to Asia\u2019s Fastest on FX Crunch"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><em><span class=\"author\">Anusha Ondaatjie<\/span>, Courtesy <span class=\"source\">Bloomberg News<\/span><\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.bnnbloomberg.ca\/polopoly_fs\/1.1715844.1643622528!\/fileimage\/httpImage\/image.jpg_gen\/derivatives\/landscape_620\/pedestrians-and-shoppers-at-pettah-market-in-colombo-sri-lanka-on-thursday-dec-16-2021-sri-lanka-s-gross-domestic-product-unexpectedly-contracted-last-quarter-adding-a-new-layer-of-challenge-to-the-economy-facing-default-risks.jpg\" alt=\"Pedestrians and shoppers at Pettah Market in Colombo, Sri Lanka, on Thursday, Dec. 16, 2021. Sri Lanka's gross domestic product unexpectedly contracted last quarter, adding a new layer of challenge to the economy facing default risks.\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Pedestrians and shoppers at Pettah Market in Colombo, Sri Lanka, on Thursday, Dec. 16, 2021. Sri Lanka&#8217;s gross domestic product unexpectedly contracted last quarter, adding a new layer of challenge to the economy facing default risks. , Bloomberg<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>(Bloomberg) &#8212; Sri Lanka\u2019s inflation rate surged past Pakistan to make it the fastest in Asia, stoked by failed harvests, import restrictions to conserve dwindling foreign-exchange reserves, and high global prices of key commodities.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Consumer prices rose 14.2% in January from a year earlier, faster than the median estimate of 13.2% in a Bloomberg survey. The average annual inflation rate rose to 6.9%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Quickening prices pushed the central bank to raise its main interest rate for the first time in three meetings this month. The island nation\u2019s foreign reserves were about $3.1 billion in December, with almost $7 billion of overseas debt due for repayment in 2022.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>President Gotabaya Rajapaksa\u2019s administration announced a $1 billion relief package this month, raising salaries of government employees and offering farmers compensation for failed crops in a bid to temper public anger over surging prices of food and medicine.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sri Lanka\u2019s cabinet has also approved importing rice from India to cool prices. It is seeking a debt restructuring from China &#8212; its biggest creditor &#8212; after drawing down a $1.5 billion Chinese swap line and securing another $400 million facility from India.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Pakistan reported a 12.3% inflation rate in December, which could rise to 13% this month, according to a Bloomberg survey.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Anusha Ondaatjie, Courtesy Bloomberg News Pedestrians and shoppers at Pettah Market in Colombo, Sri Lanka, on Thursday, Dec. 16, 2021. Sri Lanka&#8217;s gross domestic product unexpectedly contracted last quarter, adding a new layer of challenge to the economy facing default risks. , Bloomberg (Bloomberg) &#8212; Sri Lanka\u2019s inflation rate surged past Pakistan to make it [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[102,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-122499","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-economy","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122499","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=122499"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122499\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=122499"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=122499"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=122499"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}