Sri Lanka economy boomed after the three-decade civil war ended in 2009 and so did the structural weaknesses, leading to the ongoing discussions for the country’s 17th IMF programme, this time around the economic crisis is much worse. However, when comparing the GDP trend with other Asian nations, Sri Lanka is an egregious performance. (Please read Lost Opportunities on page 24)

Note: GDP at Current Market Prices 2021. IMF bailouts in US dollar terms given where exchange rate against SDRs is available in the public domain. Both IMF and Central Bank of Sri Lanka report past bailout values in SDR (Special Drawing Rights), a reserve asset created by the IMF which is not a currency. We calculated US dollar values by