Sri Lanka's inflation hits record high in June

COLOMBO: Sri Lanka's inflation hit a ninth consecutive record in June, official data showed Friday, July 1 at 54.6 per cent a day after the IMF asked the bankrupt nation to rein in galloping prices and corruption.

The Colombo Consumer Price Index CCPI has gone up for the first time in its history, reaching the psychologically important 50 per cent mark, according to the department of census and statistics.

The figures came hours after the International Monetary Fund urged Sri Lanka to contain spiralling inflation and address corruption as part of its efforts to salvage the troubled economy, which has been ravaged by a foreign exchange crisis.

The country requested a possible bailout after the IMF ended 10 days of in-person talks with Sri Lankan authorities in Colombo on Thursday.

Since October, the CCPI has been setting new monthly highs, when year-on-year inflation was just 7.6 per cent. It reached 39.1 per cent in May.

The rupee has lost half of its value against the US dollar this year.

Consumer prices are rising even faster than in official statistics, according to private economists.

According to an economist at Johns Hopkins University, Steve Hanke, who monitors price increases in the world's troublespots, Sri Lanka's current inflation is 128 per cent, second only to Zimbabwe's 365 per cent.

Sri Lanka is experiencing a shutdown of non-essential state institutions for two weeks, along with the closure of schools to reduce commuting due to an acute energy shortage.

For months, 22 million people in the country have been enduring acute shortages of essentials - including food, fuel and medicines.

Protests are continuing outside President Gotabaya Rajapaksa's office, demanding his resignation over the unprecedented economic turmoil and mismanagement.

Sri Lanka went to the International Monetary Fund in April after the country defaulted on its US $51 billion external debt.