Sri Lankan PM Ranil Wickremesinghe declares country bankrupt amid fuel crisis and food shortages

Colombo, May 20: Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe has declared the country bankrupt as it faces a fuel crisis and food shortages.

Speaking to the media Wickremesinghe said, the last administration is to blame for the country has come to a point where it is bankrupt which has never happened before. We have no dollars, we have no rupees, we are not in a stable position, we are feeling the rise of the price of fuel, and we know it will go higher, he added.

Meanwhile, Sri Lanka's central bank has secured foreign exchange to pay for fuel and cooking gas shipments that will ease crippling shortages, its governor said yesterday.

Most of Sri Lanka's petrol stations have run dry as the island nation battles its most devastating economic crisis since independence in 1948. At some pumps in the commercial capital, Colombo, dozens of people stood in lines holding plastic cans, as troops in combat gear and armed with assault rifles patrolled the streets.