‘Political Solution Won’t Help Sri Lanka’s Economic Crisis’

Ali Sabry who resigned a day after he was made Sri Lanka’s Finance Minister earlier this week has said he accepts responsibility for his role in the ongoing economic crisis. “There is no point cheering when things go well and trying to escape through the back door when things go poorly. So I take responsibility and I apologise to the people of this nation for this situation,” he told Parliament. Sabry said while he was in the Cabinet, he had all along maintained that “we should have gone to the IMF at least one year ago”. Sri Lanka is scheduled to repay $1 billion towards international sovereign bonds in July this year. “How are we going to make this payment? I do not see any option besides going to the IMF or negotiating a bridging finance agreement with the Asian Development Bank,” said Sabry. He requested the Opposition to cooperate with the government. “A political solution will not help this economic crisis. Any solution should be grounded in resolving the economic and US dollar crisis.”