Sri Lankans took to the streets in protest last week over austerity measures and tax hikes put forth by the International Monetary Fund as a precondition for a bailout loan.

The protests included about 50,000 people ranging from university teachers to doctors, WSWS.org reported. About 30,000 people from public and private banks also joined the protests. 

President Ranil Wickremesinghe’s government responded by deploying hundreds of police officers in Colombo. Wickremesinghe announced last week that the country was in the last stages of securing the nearly $3 billion bailout package from the IMF. 

If the country fails to restructure its debt load, the IMF will not provide the $2.9 billion bailout loan that it promised. The IMF is withholding the cash until Sri Lanka raises corporate-income and value-added taxes, cuts government spending, and reaches a debt-restructuring agreement with two of its largest creditors, China and India, the Independent Institute said.

These protesters have lashed out at some of the terms of the IMF deal that could result in 36 percent hikes for some individuals.

The Sri Lankan economy has continued to worsen after the country defaulted on its loans for the first time in May. Since November 2019, the Sri Lankan rupee has shed 52 percent of its value against the U.S. dollar. Its foreign debt exceeds $51 billion, of which $28 billion must be repaid by 2027.

Wickremesinghe has called on the country for patience and asked for another five to six months to find some kind of equilibrium. 

“Inflation rises during an economic crisis. The price of goods increases. Employment is at risk. Businesses collapse. Taxes increase. It is difficult for all sections of the society to survive,” he said, according to The Associated Press. 

TRENDPOST: As Gerald Celente has often noted, “When people lose everything and have nothing left to lose, they lose it.” (See “TOP TREND, NEW WORLD DISORDER IN SRI LANKA AND PERU,” 31 Jan 2023.)

And as we had forecast when the COVID War broke out over two years ago and hundreds of millions of lives and livelihoods were killed… the deeper people fell into poverty and hopelessness, the higher the spike in street demonstrations to protest the lack of basic living standards, government corruption, crime, and violence.

The Trends Journal has been highlighting its “New World Disorder” trend for more than two years. 

We point out that politicians across the globe are fighting for survival against angry mobs who want to overthrow them. The COVID-19 War and the Ukraine War have been a devastating one-two combination for many economies.