Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe (fifth, left) attends the 75th Independence Day ceremony in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Feb 4, 2023. (PHOTO / AP)
COLOMBO – Sri Lanka's economy is expected to grow again from the end of this year and the government wants the country to exit bankruptcy by 2026, President Ranil Wickremesinghe told parliament on Wednesday.
The Indian Ocean island of 22 million people has been struggling with its worst economic crisis since independence from Britain in 1948, which has forced it to default on loans and seek a $2.9 billion bailout from the International Monetary Fund.
President Ranil Wickremesinghe said the government could turn around the economy if Sri Lankans tolerated high direct taxes for another six months
Wickremesinghe said the government could turn around the economy if Sri Lankans tolerated high direct taxes for another six months. He said last month that the economy for the full year could contract by 3.5 percent or 4.0 percent after shrinking 11 percent last year.
Recent hikes in income taxes have hit salaried workers hard, with trade unions and private sector professionals staging protests in Colombo, the country's largest city.
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Wickremesinghe said the aim was to reduce inflation to single digits by the end of the year. Sri Lanka's key inflation rate, the Colombo Consumer Price Index, eased to 54.2 percent in January from 57.2 percent in December.