NEW Sri Lanka Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe today told his people to prepare for at least two more months of hardship in a grim speech that offered candid details about the unprecedented financial crisis in the country.

He said “it is a challenge for the treasury to find US$1 million (RM4.3 million)” compared with the foreign exchange reserves of US$7.5 billion in November 2019.

The Finance Ministry is finding it difficult to raise the US$5 million required to import gas.

Sri Lankans have been protesting for weeks against the government over its handling of the economic crisis, which has caused a critical shortage of fuel, medicine and other essential goods.

“To ease the queues, we must obtain approximately US$75 million in the next couple of days. At the moment, we have petrol stocks for only a single day,” said Wickremesinghe.

“There is a severe shortage of medicine, including those required for heart disease, and surgical equipment.

“Payments have not been made to suppliers of medicines, medical equipment and food for patients for four months. The total owed to them amounts to SLR 34 billion (RM427 million).”

Amid mounting public anger and violence, the previous prime minister, Mahinda Rajapaksa, resigned on May 9.

Wickremesinghe also proposed a number of measures, including printing money, privatising Sri Lankan Airlines and creating a new alternative budget for the year, to deal with the crisis.

“The next couple of months will be the most difficult ones of our lives. We must prepare ourselves to make some sacrifices and face the challenges during this period.” – Bernama, May 17, 2022.