Uditha Jayasinghe, Alasdair Pala

COLOMBO, (Reuters) – The Sri Lankan parliament reassembled on Tuesday after violence broke out last week. As the Prime Minister resigned, he warned the nation that it was facing a difficult economic environment and would run out of fuel supplies.

Ranil Wickremesinghe was the new prime minister and said Monday in a televised speech that the island had to confront “unpleasant, terrifying facts”.

We only have gasoline stocks to last us for one day at the moment. He said that the next few months would be some of the hardest of his life.

He said that foreign reserves were close to zero, having fallen to $7.5 billion in November 2019. The country would need $75 million to maintain its economy. Essential medicines had run out.

Because of the shortage of fuel which is mostly imported, power disruptions could last as long as 15 hours daily.

Wickremesinghe stated that he would ask for foreign aid, privatize SriLankan Airlines, and request parliamentary approval to raise the Treasury bill issuance from 3 trillion to 4 trillion rupees (11.27 billion).

He said, “For a brief period, our future is even more challenging than the difficult times that we have gone through.”

After more than a month’s worth of peaceful protests, the government’s economic management was reacted violently to last week’s storming of a Colombo protest location by Mahinda Rajapaksa supporters.

Day after day of clashes among protesters, police and government supporters left nine people dead and more than 300 others injured.

Rajapaksa resigned and his younger brother Gotabaya Rajapaksa was elected president.

Sri Lanka has experienced an unprecedented economic crisis since 1948 when it gained independence. This was due to rising oil prices, the COVID-19 pandemic, and populist tax reductions by the Rajapaksas.

Due to a chronic currency shortage, there has been rampant inflation as well as shortages of fuel, medicine and other essentials. This led thousands of protestors to take to the streets across the Indian Ocean nation where India and China fight for control.

All four of Wickremesinghe’s cabinet appointments have been made by the Rajapaksas’ Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna Party, much to protesters’ dismay.

His key portfolios are still to be announced, which includes the critical post of finance minister. He will work with the International Monetary Fund to provide financial assistance.

Ali Sabry was the Finance Minister in former times. He had been involved with multilateral lenders, but with Mahinda Rajapaksa, he resigned.

($1 = 355.0000 Sri Lankan rupees)