A few years ago Sri Lanka’s economy was growing strongly enough to provide jobs and financial security for most.
A daily wage laborer waits for work at a wholesale market in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Sunday, June 26, 2022. Sri Lankans have endured months of shortages of food, fuel and other necessities due to the country's dwindling foreign exchange reserves and mounting debt, worsened by the pandemic and other longer term troubles. Chamila Nilanthi is tired of all the waiting.
Such disasters are more commonly seen in poorer countries, in sub-Saharan Africa or in war-torn Afghanistan. In middle-income countries such as Sri Lanka, they are rarer but not unheard of: 6 million Venezuelans have fled their oil-rich country to escape a seemingly unending political crisis that has devastated the economy.
Ordinary Sri Lankans — especially the poor — are paying the price. They wait for days for cooking gas and petrol in lines that can extend more than 2 kilometers . Sometimes, like Chamila Nilanthi, they go home with nothing. Unable to find cooking gas, many Sri Lankans are turning to kerosene stoves or cooking over open fires.
The crisis is a crushing blow to Sri Lanka’s middle class, estimated to account for 15% to 20% of the country’s urban population. Until it all came apart, they enjoyed financial security and increasing standards of living.
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