Opinion: Sri Lanka’s recovery is real, but fragile
The numbers are improving. The task now is to make the gains durable — and felt at the kitchen table.
It is tempting, after the trauma of default, to treat every improving indicator as proof that the worst is over. The reserves are healthier, the index rankings are rising, and the Fund has released its funds. All of this is real.
Yet recovery measured in spreadsheets is not the same as recovery felt at the kitchen table. A 14 percent slide in the rupee since the Gulf conflict began is a reminder of how quickly external shocks can erase domestic progress.
Making it durable
The task for policymakers is not simply to stabilise, but to build buffers deep enough that the next shock — and there will be one — does not send the country back to the brink. That means reform that outlasts any single government.
Aisha writes on macroeconomics, the rupee and Sri Lanka’s recovery from default.
