Is Malaysia heading the way of crisis-ridden Sri Lanka?

[superadmin]

I’ve never visited Sri Lanka but I’ve heard that it’s a beautiful place and every year, before the Covid-19 pandemic, more than a million people visited it.

According to Sri Lankan tourism department figures, 1.9 million people visited the island in 2019, earning it US$3.6 billion in revenue. In 2018, 2.3 million visitors helped it earn US$4.4 billion in foreign exchange.

It is often touted by proud Sri Lankans as “paradise” and “pearl of the orient”.

But no more. For Sri Lanka is now drowning in its worst ever economic crisis and is pleading for help from other nations to enable its people to stay afloat.

Following a 70% drop in foreign exchange reserves since January 2020, Sri Lanka has been struggling to even pay for essential imports such as food and fuel. It’s foreign currency reserves fell to US$2.31 billion in February, a fall of US$779 million just from December 2021 through January 2022.

The nation is reeling from food shortages and skyrocketing prices of food and fuel. Some reports say many are eating only one meal a day, and rationing has been introduced to cope with the shortages. For example, a Sri Lankan can now buy only 400gm of milk a day.

Residents have to put up with daily power cuts of up to 13 hours.

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