Sri Lanka has announced 10-hour daily power cuts across the nation starting Wednesday, 30 March, as it battles its worst economic crisis since 1948, triggered by a severe shortage of fuel, food, and foreign exchange to afford imports, reported AFP.
The state electricity monopoly said that the country had run out of oil to power thermal generators and was imposing a 10-hour power cut – up from a seven-hour outage since the beginning of the month.
Officials quoted by AFP said that over 40 percent of the island nation's electricity was hydro-generated, but most of the reservoirs were running dangerously low because there had been no rains.
Fuel Prices Shoot Up
Prices of fuel have sky-rocketed since the beginning of the year with the cost of petrol up by 92 percent and that of diesel by 76 percent in the country. Officials said that it took the government 12 days to arrange for $44 million and pay for the latest shipment of LP gas and kerosene.
The state-owned Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC) said there would be no diesel in the country for at least two days. Motorists waiting in long queues were asked to leave until imported fuel was restocked.
Sri Lanka is witnessing an acute foreign exchange crunch with the IMF noting the adverse impact on the economy, including rocketing public debt, low foreign currency reserves, and persistently large financing needs in the next few years.
The country is seeking a bailout from the International Monetary Fund and has turned to India and China for financial aid.
(With inputs from AFP.)
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