Crisis-hit Sri Lanka hopes new president will turn its fortunes around By Reuters

By Uditha Jayasinghe and Sudipto Ganguly

COLOMBO (Reuters) – Sri Lankan housewife Lankika Dilrukshi says she is tired of the daily struggle to support her children. On Saturday, she votes in a presidential poll she sees as key to securing a better future for herself and her nation.

Dilrukshi, 31, is one of millions of people who have barely made ends meet since the island nation’s economy plunged into its worst financial crisis in decades in 2022.

“Life has become so difficult, we need change,” she said. “We need a leader who works for the poor.”

Economic recovery is at the heart of the election battle between President Ranil Wickremesinghe, opposition leader Sajith Premadasa and Marxist-leaning politician Anura Kumara Dissanayake.

The three are leaders and have promised new strategies to save the economy, lower taxes and support business.

Sri Lanka’s poor and middle class want a fair economic recovery that supports their aspirations, said Umesh Moramudali, who teaches economics at the University of Colombo.

“The poor are really struggling. Higher prices hurt them the most, especially higher food prices,” he said.

Although inflation cooled to 0.5% last month and GDP is expected to grow by 3% in 2024 for the first time in three years, change is slow and yet to trickle down.

Sri Lankans were hit hard by the economic crisis of 2022, which was triggered by a severe shortage of foreign currency that added to the problems caused by the pandemic.

Inflation rose to 70%, the rupee depreciated by 45% and the economy shrank by 7.3%, forcing the government to seek a bailout from the International Monetary Fund.

The latest government data shows that in 2023, 7 million people – almost a third of the total population – were considered poor.

By mid-2023, almost half of families will have limited their food intake, data from 10,000 households collected by Colombo think tank LIRNEasia showed.

Increasing food insecurity has also led to child malnutrition, with stunted growth rising to over 17% in 2023, from 12% in 2021.

Weighed down by new taxes and fewer high-income jobs, migration has skyrocketed. More than 600,000 people left the country for work in the past two years, up from 122,264 in 2021, according to government data.

Fruit seller Nancy Hemalatha, 61, borrowed 150,000 rupees ($495) to finance her business and says she barely has 2,000 rupees left each day after repaying the loan.

“My two younger sons want to migrate. That is their focus now,” said Hemalatha.

For housewife Dilrukshi, whose laboring husband earns about 2,500 rupees ($8) a day, frugality is the only way to survive.

She keeps birds and fish off the tables to channel funds towards her 13-year-old daughter’s education and borrows small amounts from neighbors.

“I want everyone to have a better future … for my daughter to become a doctor,” she said. “That’s what I want to see happen.”

(1 USD = 303.2500 Sri Lankan Rupees)