Sri Lanka’s central bank has raised interest rates to their highest levels in more than 20 years as it battles to put a lid on spiralling prices.
The price hikes have made life incredibly difficult for the South Asian country’s poorest who are facing shortages of basics items such as food, fuel and medicine in the worst economic crisis in living memory.On Wednesday, he announced he had called Russian leader Vladimir Putin to request credit support to help the country import fuel.
The bank said it expects to tighten its monetary policy further to fully curb inflation, which rose to nearly 55% in June, while food inflation topped 80%.Bank governor Nandalal Weerasinghe said: ‘Our priority is to bring down inflation to at least a reasonable level as soon as possible. The sooner the better.’
‘What the central bank has done is a measure in the right direction, but it’s too short given the high inflation rate of 55% right now which will accelerate to more than 80 to 1005 in the next two to three months,’ W.A. Wijewardena, an economist and former deputy governor of Sri Lanka’s Central Bank said.Sri Lanka is suffering from shortages of basic items including food
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