-By Political Correspondent
(Lanka-e-News -04.March.2025, 11.00 PM) Sri Lankans, pack your bags and book your return tickets! The International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) Senior Mission Chief for Sri Lanka, Peter Breuer, has given us the ultimate assurance—Sri Lanka is on its way to becoming an economic paradise. According to him, the country has already recovered 40% of its lost income, and growth is at an encouraging 5.5%.
“Don’t leave, come back!” he urges, painting a rosy picture of Sri Lanka’s future. It’s heartwarming advice, really. Except for one tiny issue: Sri Lankans aren’t leaving because they enjoy immigration queues at foreign airports. They are leaving because their utility bills have skyrocketed by 300%, their cost of living is unbearable, and their salaries don’t stretch past the first week of the month.
While Breuer and his IMF colleagues lived in five-star hotels, sipping cocktails by the pool, the average Sri Lankan was queuing for petrol, cooking gas, and even milk powder. They were left calculating how to survive on two meals a day, not three. And now, after months of policy decisions made in air-conditioned boardrooms, Breuer wants to tell us that everything is going great?
Breuer claims Sri Lanka’s economic reform program under the Extended Fund Facility (EFF) is working. But let’s break that down. Who exactly is it working for?
Is it working for the Sri Lankan people who are paying 250,000 extra rupees per taxpayer in hidden costs due to increased taxes?
Is it working for businesses that are drowning under import restrictions, high interest rates, and unpredictable policies?
Is it working for the exporters who were conveniently allowed to keep their earnings abroad while the rupee depreciated, making ordinary Sri Lankans pay more for every dollar?
Ah, but Breuer doesn’t want to talk about that. The IMF’s concern was primarily privatization—making sure that state-owned enterprises were sold off to the highest (often foreign) bidder. Meanwhile, Sri Lanka’s currency remained at the mercy of banking cartels and market manipulators, causing financial havoc for the common man.
And let’s not forget the debt. The core of Sri Lanka’s economic crisis was its unsustainable debt. What did the IMF offer? A restructuring program that demands painful sacrifices from the people while ensuring foreign creditors get their pound of flesh. Why didn’t Breuer fight for a 20-year grace period on Sri Lanka’s loans? If he truly wanted to see the country flourish, why not give it space to breathe?
The economic recovery Sri Lanka is experiencing is not because of a miraculous IMF program. It is because ordinary Sri Lankans had no choice but to endure suffering, higher taxes, and severe cuts in social welfare. This “success” came at a price:
Sky-high electricity bills that make people wonder if they are funding NASA’s next space mission.
A currency devaluation that makes buying essentials feel like shopping in Switzerland.
Increased VAT and income taxes, forcing people to rethink their life choices every time they step into a supermarket.
Yet, Breuer is here to tell us that the plan is working, so why worry?
Peter Breuer is leaving his post as the IMF’s Mission Chief for Sri Lanka. No doubt, he will move on to another crisis-ridden country, apply the same economic prescriptions, and leave behind a trail of struggling citizens. But before he departs, we have one question for him:
Can you truly rest knowing that while you were enjoying Sri Lanka’s finest hospitality, families were rationing food? That children were forced to drop out of school because their parents couldn’t afford transport? That hospitals lacked essential medicines while Sri Lanka’s foreign reserves were being drained to pay external creditors?
The people of Sri Lanka didn’t need an IMF lecture on why they should stay. They needed real solutions—ones that prioritized them, not just debt repayments and fiscal targets.
Breuer’s parting words might sound optimistic, but Sri Lankans know better. They know that economic paradise doesn’t come from speeches; it comes from policies that actually work for the people. Until then, the question isn’t whether Sri Lankans should return—it’s whether those who forced them to leave will ever be held accountable.
Goodbye, Peter. We hope you enjoyed your work in Sri Lanka and making Sri Lankan People’s lives missery and expensive.
-By Political Correspondent
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by (2025-03-04 17:44:48)
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