The Economist April 9th 2022 45
AsiaSriLankaLights out
U
ntil veryrecently Gotabaya Rajapak
sa, still Sri Lanka’s president as The
Economistwent to press, was secure in his
job. After all, he had done much to consoli
date his power. Following his election in
2019 he dissolved the legislature and filled
the government with relatives and cronies.
A thumping win for his coalition in parlia
mentary elections in 2020 enabled him to
change the constitution, handing himself
even more power.
Yet over the past few weeks Mr Rajapak
sa’s hold on the country of 22m people has
been slipping. Sri Lanka’s economy is in
free fall. The rupee has declined by more
than 30% against the dollar since the cen
tral bank abandoned its peg a month ago
(see chart on next page). Fuel and food
have been in short supply for weeks. Sri
Lankans wait hours in the heat to buy cook
ing gas at exorbitant prices—if they can get
it at all. Power cuts of up to 13 hours a day
have crippled businesses, including thebudding tech industry. Exams have been
postponed for lack of paper. Hospitals
across the country are running out of es
sential drugs. Even welloff Sri Lankans,
usually insulated from such crises, have
found themselves facing shortages.
All this is a product of longrunning
economic imbalances, external shocks and
government mismanagement. An earlier
Rajapaksa government headed by Mahin
da, Gotabaya’s brother, borrowed heavily to
finance infrastructure projects that have
yet to generate returns. The current one
slashed taxes, which bashed governmentrevenue just before the pandemic halted
tourist arrivals (a big source of foreign cur
rency). It briefly banned fertiliser imports
to save dollars, hitting food production.
The government then delayed going to
the imfuntil March, hoping that returning
tourists and help from China wouldtide it
over. But just as tourism began to recover,
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine pushed up
commodity prices yet again, making im
ported fuel and food dearer still.
Economic hardship has driven people
into the streets. Even middleclass types,
who usually steer clear of protests and un
til recently approved of Mr Rajapaksa’s
brand of strongman ethnonationalism,
now put the blame for the crisis squarely
on the president. “These are people who
keep liquor cabinets at home, not those
who come to politicallyorganised protests
for a packet of rice and half a bottle of ar-
rack,” says Feroze Kamardeen, a playwright
in Colombo.
It has not helped that Mahinda’s son
(and minister of youth and sports), was
spotted flyboarding in the Maldives as Sri
Lankans struggled to buy food. People are
fed up. “Go home Gota!”—the president’s
nickname—read the signs mounted on
everything from broomsticks to pets’ col
lars. By “home” they mean America, where
Mr Rajapaksa lived for several years.
The government, failing to read theC OLOMBO AND DELHI
A deep economic crisis has created a political one→Alsointhissection
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