COLOMBO: Cash-strapped Sri Lanka is "gradually" emerging from its worst economic crisis after the austerity of an IMF bailout, the president said Sunday in a speech to mark independence day. Recalling the "indignity of being labelled a financially bankrupt country," President Ranil Wickremesinghe dispensed with the customary annual address in favor of a brief statement. Sri Lanka saw months of civil unrest at the peak of the economic crisis, culminating in the ouster of then-president Gotabaya Rajapaksa when thousands of protesters stormed his home. The International Monetary Fund released the first tranche of a $2.9 billion four-year bailout loan to Sri Lanka in March last year under a reform program that saw taxes raised and prices sharply increased. Prices spiked more than 6 percent last month after the government hiked taxes in line with IMF conditions to maintain the bailout loan, according to Central Bank of Sri Lanka data.
