Sri Lanka is turning off street lights to save electricity, a minister said on Thursday, as its worst economic crisis in decades brought more power cuts and halted trading on its main stock market.
The island of 22 million people is struggling with rolling blackouts for up to 13 hours a day because the government does not have enough foreign exchange for fuel imports.
Retail inflation hit 18.7% in March over the same period a year ago, the statistics department said on Thursday. Food inflation reached 30.2% in March, partly driven by a currency devaluation and last year's ban on chemical fertilisers that was later reversed. A diesel shipment under a $500 million credit line from India was expected on Saturday, Wanniarachchi said, though she warned that would not fix the issue.
But shares slid after the market opened on Thursday and the CSE halted trading for 30 minutes - the third time in two days - after an index tracking leading companies dropped by more than 5%.
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