According to President Ranil Wickramasinghe, the next six months will be extremely difficult and unprecedented.
But he affirmed that we must go through it because it cannot be undone.
He said this today at a ceremony in Colombo to launch a research report on economic reforms.
The President went on to say
I don’t believe there is any other way out of this situation besides reaching a staff-level agreement with the International Monetary Fund.
We must reach an agreement with the International Monetary Fund, whether we like it or not. It is entirely up to you to determine whether it is good or bad. We must first reach an agreement at the staff level.
However, everyone in parliament should be aware of this. If any member of parliament or party disagrees, we have the right to question your solution. Alternatively, what is your alternative solution? This must be agreed upon by all parties.
The main issue we face in our IMF negotiations is that policies change when governments change. We must consider whether we are prepared for it. If the parliament rejects it, they will face the consequences. This is the only way to revive the economy.
However, it will undoubtedly be difficult in the near future. I’m not going to deny it. The first six months are extremely difficult. We’ve never been through anything like this before, but we have to get through it. We can’t go back in time. What we have today is the result of previous economic policies. So going back to that system makes no sense. ‘Perhaps we should reconsider.’
