Sri Lanka has a new president and prime minister – but a change in who leads the crisis-hit South Asian nation alone will not solve the country’s severe economic problems.
Ranil Wickremesinghe – who on July 20, 2022, was voted in by lawmakers to replace fleeing former president Gotabaya Rajapaksa – and his appointed premier Dinesh Gunawardena inherit an economy grappling with record inflation as high as 59%, a currency that has lost almost half its value since March 2022 and severe shortages of daily necessities such as food and fuel. Nearly all economic activity in the country has ground to a halt.
