The economic crisis in Sri Lanka has reached the top floors of the island's economic management.

After protests, violence and the bid to resign by all ministers over the weekend, the Colombo Stock Exchange index fell 6 percent in the first seconds after the trading floor opened on Monday.

Trading was immediately suspended.

Ajith Nivard Cabraal, the controversial Fed governor, has tendered his resignation.

The former Justice Minister Ali Sabry is to become the new finance minister.

He succeeds Basil Rajapaksa, who belongs to the ruling clan of the government and had a bad reputation.

Christopher Hein

Business correspondent for South Asia/Pacific based in Singapore.

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Financial and hotel values ​​fell in double digits in short trading on Monday, individual agricultural companies lost more than a quarter of their value: The consequences of the economic crisis will not only discourage tourists from traveling, but also the import of fertilizer, weed killers and machines due to the weakness of the rupee impede.

After the exchange rate was floated, it has lost more value against the dollar than any other currency in the world since the beginning of the year: its drop of 31 percent even exceeds the loss of the Russian ruble (down 12 percent), the Ukrainian hryvnia (down 8) and the Turkish lira (minus 7).

Stock index loses a third

The index doesn't paint a better picture: after the attack on Ukraine, the Moscow stock exchange posted a loss of 35 percent since the beginning of the year.

The Colombo stock exchange followed directly behind with a drop of 33 percent.

After a series of crises - from the Easter 2019 terrorist attacks on Corona and drastic wrong decisions by the ruling Rajapaksa clan, which among other things is the president and prime minister, the island slipped into a debt and foreign exchange crisis that is now leading to hunger.

The reserves are only enough for one month of imports, in July a billion dollars from the mountain of debt totaling 7 billion dollars is due.

Food inflation is at 30 percent, and there is a shortage of fuel, cooking gas and medicine.

“The crisis will only be resolved when the government completely resigns.

Once the Rajapaksa family is gone, the country will get back on its feet.

Because the crisis is increasingly becoming a humanitarian crisis and the Americans do not want Sri Lanka to turn more and more towards Beijing, I am also assuming that the International Monetary Fund will provide overdue support," says Rainer Michael Preiss, advisor to the investment company Ceylon Asset Management in Colombo in conversation with the FAZ