Bangladesh
Bangladesh-Sri Lanka Food and foreign exchange crisis in Sri Lanka: Bangladesh sends more money on an emergency basis
Dhaka, September 1: Sri Lanka has declared a state of emergency in the face of an acute food crisis. The country has not been able to import the required food due to the depletion of foreign currency in the local private banks. In this situation, Bangladesh has extended a helping hand to the neighboring country on an emergency basis. On Tuesday (August 31), Bangladesh Bank released another USD 10 crore for Sri Lanka, amounting to about Tk 852 crore in domestic currency.
Bangladesh wants to give a total of USD 200 million to Sri Lanka, which is suffering from foreign exchange crisis. In the first phase, 50 million dollars was given on 19 August. That means the lion's share of the promised money has already been sent.
However, this assistance to Sri Lanka is not a direct grant or loan. Instead of USD 200 million, Sri Lanka will give the same amount to Bangladesh. Bangladesh Bank will also get some interest. This is called the 'currency swap' policy.
Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa said on Tuesday (August 31) that he had ordered the enactment of an emergency law to curb stockpiling of sugar, rice and other essential food items. This has given government officials the power to seize food stored by traders, arrest stockists and set prices for government goods.
Sri Lankan Commerce Minister Bandula Gunavardhane said the shortage was due to stockpiling of food items by some unscrupulous traders and the people were suffering for it.
According to Al Jazeera, prices of food items such as sugar, rice, onions and potatoes have risen sharply in Sri Lanka recently. In addition to the coronavirus panic, long lines of shoppers have been seen in front of shops for powdered milk, kerosene oil and cooking gas. A 16-day curfew has been imposed in the country to curb the spread of the disease, which will end next Monday.
There are still more than two hundred people dying in Corona almost every day. Even then, ordinary people are forced to crowd in front of the shop.
Sri Lanka's economy contracted by a record 3.6 percent in 2020 due to the coronavirus epidemic. At the same time, there was a shortage in their foreign exchange reserves. In 2019, Sri Lanka's foreign exchange reserves stood at 7.5 billion, at least in July this year it stood at just 2.8 billion.
In order to save foreign currency, the Sri Lankan government banned the import of cars, edible oil, turmeric and some other products in March last year. Local importers said they could not afford to buy dollars and could not buy approved products such as food and medicine. Sri Lankan Energy Minister Uday Gamanpila has urged motorists to use less fuel oil so that they can buy foreign medicines and vaccines to save foreign currency.
