By Rathindra Kuruwita

The government was without plan to address the root causes of the current economic crisis, National Freedom Front (NFF) leader Wimal Weerawansa said yesterday.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) had no intention of providing meaningful solutions to Sri Lanka’s problems, said Weerasansa.

“I am not sure if we will get the 2.9 billion the IMF has promised us. On the other hand, the government is not doing anything to boost our exports, address structural issues and make the state sector more efficient. Ranil Wickremesinghe administration is hoping that China, India, US and other world powers will give it bridging finance once the IMF money comes,” Weerawansa said.

Placing all hopes on IMF funding and tourism was a bad idea, Weerawansa said. “This is irresponsible behaviour and Sri Lanka needs to study what India, and Russia did when they faced economic crises,” he said.

“In 1982, Argentina defaulted and since then it has defaulted four times. We are going down that road. India faced a similar crisis in the early 90s and it came out because it had a plan. We have no plan. Waiting for IMF money and hoping tourists will arrive is not a plan,” the NFF Leader said.