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Sri Lanka in very serious economic crisis, "on the verge of default"

Audio 06:53

A bus driver waits at a petrol pump in Colombo, Sri Lanka on March 2.

AP - Eranga Jayawardena

By: Stéphane Geneste Follow

1 min

The country, on the verge of bankruptcy, is struggling to buy imported products as essential as gasoline or medicines.

Quarterly school exams have been postponed indefinitely for millions of students, due to a shortage of paper caused by lack of foreign currency.

In three years, the country's financial reserves have been divided by three.

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The government had to call for help from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and India, a country which granted it loans to finance the purchase of foodstuffs, medicines and oil.

A reversal accentuating the probability that the island seeks to renegotiate part of its external debt estimated at 51 billion dollars.

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, specialist in Asia and director of information at Crisis24.

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• Sri Lanka

• Economic crisis

• India

• Finance

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