© . People line up to buy kerosene oil for kerosene stoves amid a shortage of household gas due to the country’s economic crisis, at a gas station in Colombo, Sri Lanka, March 21, 2022. REUTERS/Dinuka Liyanawatte Uditha Jayasinghe COLOMBO () -Sri Lanka will hire a global law firm to provide technical assistance with debt restructuring ahead of talks with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) over the country’s economic crisis, a top official said Tuesday. The island’s foreign exchange reserves have fallen 70% in the past two years to $2.31 billion and it must repay about $4 billion in debt for the remainder of this year. Due to the outflow of its dollars, Sri Lanka is struggling to pay for its critical imports, including food, fuel and medicines. The government ordered the military to place soldiers at hundreds of gas stations on Tuesday to help distribute fuel. Sri Lanka’s cabinet decided on Monday to appoint a technical adviser, spokesman Ramesh Pathirana told reporters. He said the central bank governor, foreign and justice ministers would oversee the selection process. Sri Lanka’s finance minister will visit Washington next month for IMF talks. Disclaimer: Fusion Media would like to remind you that the data on this website is not necessarily real-time or accurate. All CFDs (Stocks, Indices, Futures) and Forex prices are not provided by exchanges but rather by market makers, and therefore prices may not be accurate and may differ from the actual market price meaning prices are indicative and not suitable for trading purposes . Therefore, Fusion Media does not bear any responsibility for any trading losses that you may incur as a result of using this data. Fusion Media or anyone associated with Fusion Media accepts no liability for any loss or damage resulting from reliance on any information, including data, quotes, charts and buy/sell signals on this website. Be fully informed about the risks and costs associated with trading the financial markets, it is one of the riskiest forms of investment possible.
