{"id":126967,"date":"2022-07-15T15:59:31","date_gmt":"2022-07-15T22:59:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=126967"},"modified":"2022-07-15T15:59:31","modified_gmt":"2022-07-15T22:59:31","slug":"sri-lanka-faces-shutdown-without-stable-govt-cbsl-governor-warns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2022\/07\/15\/sri-lanka-faces-shutdown-without-stable-govt-cbsl-governor-warns\/","title":{"rendered":"Sri Lanka faces shutdown without stable govt: CBSL governor warns"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><em>Courtesy Adaderana<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n<p>The governor of Sri Lanka\u2019s central bank, Nandalal Weerasinghe, has warned that the country may shut down if no stable government is formed soon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There is a lot of uncertainty\u201d over whether enough foreign exchange can be found to pay for essential petroleum, he told the BBC\u2019s Newsnight programme.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Sri Lanka faces shutdown without stable govt: CBSL governor warns (English)\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/IIfo8aQN8kE?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Progress on getting an international bailout package depended on having a stable administration, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The country is in the grip of mass unrest over an economic crisis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has fled abroad and acting president Ranil Wickremesinghe has imposed a curfew for a second day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sri Lanka has seen its economy collapse and the cost of food, fuel and other basic supplies skyrocket for ordinary people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Many blame the Rajapaksa administration for mishandling the crisis and see Mr Wickremesinghe, who became prime minister in May, as part of the problem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Nandalal Weerasinghe, who himself only took over as governor of the central bank in April, said he did not see a way forward\u201d on how to provide essentials without a stable administration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We have been able to finance at least three shipments of diesel probably until the end of this month and some one or two shipments of petrol, but beyond that, there\u2019s a lot of uncertainty whether we even will be able to provide sufficient foreign exchange to finance essential petroleum for this country,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If that doesn\u2019t happen, then it will be like [the] whole country will be closed down. So that\u2019s why I need a prime minister, president, cabinet, who can make decisions&#8230; Without that, all people will be suffering.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Mr Weerasinghe has been holding talks with the International Monetary Fund on a bailout.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We hope to be able to make good progress in our discussion with the creditors for debt structuring, but the timing for that process [depends] on how soon there will be a stable administration,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Once a stable government was in place, Sri Lanka could come out of the crisis somewhere within three or four or five months\u201d, he suggested.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The governor of the central bank has been seen as a potential new president himself, but he appeared to rule that out, saying, I have no interest in\u2026 taking any political position.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><br><em><strong>Source: BBC<\/strong><br>-Agencies<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Courtesy Adaderana The governor of Sri Lanka\u2019s central bank, Nandalal Weerasinghe, has warned that the country may shut down if no stable government is formed soon. There is a lot of uncertainty\u201d over whether enough foreign exchange can be found to pay for essential petroleum, he told the BBC\u2019s Newsnight programme. Progress on getting an [&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-126967","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\/126967","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=126967"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126967\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=126967"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=126967"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=126967"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}