Sri Lanka to go bankrupt by 2022 with record high inflation

• Sri Lanka is facing a deepening financial and humanitarian crisis as inflation rises to record levels, food prices rocket and its coffers run dry.

• The meltdown faced by the government, led by President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, is in part caused by the immediate impact of the Covid crisis and the loss of tourism but is compounded by high government spending and tax cuts eroding state revenues, vast debt repayments to China.

• The World Bank estimates 500,000 people have fallen below the poverty line since the beginning of the pandemic, the equivalent of five years’ progress in fighting poverty.