蜜芽传媒

Sri Lanka is in the midst of a foreign exchange crisis that has crippled its economy. Faced with 13-hour power cuts, a lack of fuel, essential food items and medicines, public anger has reached a new high. Sri Lankan police have imposed curfew and fired tear gas at demonstrators protesting about the shortages.

Umesh Moramudali, an economist at the University of Colombo in Sri Lanka says the protests took place mainly around the president's house and a bus was reportedly set on fire. He describes the economic crisis in the country - saying the long power cuts and prices hikes have been going on for about a month and people are very frustrated. He says the crisis has been caused by financial mismanagement by the government and a failure to seek help from the IMF - the International Monetary Fund - and this has resulted in a lack of imports of basic living essentials.

Photo: A protest in Colombo against the current economic crisis in Sri Lanka Credit: EPA