COLOMBO: His hair is nicely combed but his cheeks are submerged and veins visible on his gaunt framework. Like many Sri Lankans, Milton Pereira and his family can not afford to buy enough food.
During the country’s most severe economic crisis, which has driven rampant inflation plus spurred protests that will last week brought down the leader , Sri Lankans are buying less, eating less and working less.
“It’s very difficult to live, even a loaf associated with bread is costly, ” Pereira informed AFP outside their modest home in Slave Island, a poor enclave of the funds Colombo.
“If we take 1 meal, we skip another. ”
With six children in the family, the particular 74-year-old said the very best they had been able to afford in recent weeks was the occasional fish, cut into little pieces for everyone.
“Because we don’t have much money, occasionally we give the fish to the children, ” he said. The particular adults, he added, “only eat the particular gravy”.
Triggered by the coronavirus outbreak, the country’s financial woes were exacerbated by government mismanagement, critics say.
Peirera’s son, BG Rajitkumar, is an electrical labourer who has had no work for several weeks.
“Food prices go up every day, ” he said. “This exponential price increase is the most terrible factor I have ever experienced. ”
Food inflation in Sri Lanka reached 80. 1 per cent in the 12 months to June, according to official figures.
At a nearby veggie store, residents pay out 1, 000 rupees (US$2. 80) to get a kilo of gourd, twice as much because three months ago, and owner Mohamad Faizal said some of their customers were now buying as little as 100g a time.
“The prices have increased, ” he stated. “The main reason will there be is no way to transportation those items as there is no fuel. ”