Sri Lankan turns off street lights to save power

Colombo: Sri Lanka is turning off streetlights to save electricity, as its worst economic crisis in decades brought more power cuts and halted trading on its main stock market. 

The island of 22 million people is struggling with rolling blackouts for up to 13 hours a day because the government does not have enough foreign exchange for fuel imports. 

The power cuts add to the pain of Sri Lankans already dealing with shortages of essentials and rocketing prices.

As per officials, police imposed an overnight curfew in several parts of Sri Lanka's main city of Colombo early on Friday after protests over the government's handling of the country's worst economic crisis in decades turned violent.  

Reportedly, hundreds of protesters gathered near President Gotabaya Rajapaksa's private residence in a Colombo suburb late on Thursday and were broken up by police using tear gas and water cannons.

On the other hand, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) will initiate discussions with Sri Lankan authorities on a possible loan programme in coming days, a spokesman said on Thursday.

The ongoing crisis, however, is a result of badly-timed tax cuts and the impact of the coronavirus pandemic coupled with historically weak government finances—leading to foreign exchange reserves dropping by 70% in the last two years.