Sri Lanka's economic collapse
A bankrupt state runs out of fuel and the president flees his own palace.
- When
- Known to
- ± 12 hours
- Era
- Contemporary, Holocene
- Where
- Colombo, Sri Lanka · 6.9271° N, 79.8612° E
Sri Lanka defaulted on its foreign debt in May 2022, its first default since independence. With no dollars for fuel, medicine or cooking gas, protesters occupied the presidential palace on 9 July and Gotabaya Rajapaksa fled the country and resigned by email. It was the clearest case of the debt distress that hit low and middle-income countries after the pandemic and the rate rises that followed.