Sri Lanka on Wednesday tightened import restrictions with a ban on more than 300 additional items as an economic crisis that has caused months of shortages and toppled a president shows no signs of abating.
President Ranil Wickremesinghe, who replaced Gotabaya Rajapaksa after his ouster in July, imposed a ban on household appliances, tools and sports gear.
The South Asian island nation of 22 million people suffers from a serious lack of many essential goods due to a lack of foreign exchange.
The new bans come even as the central bank announced last week that FX tightening would ease on the back of better inflows.
However, Sri Lanka’s economy is expected to contract a worse-than-expected 8.0 percent this year, according to the bank, with inflation forecast to hit a record 65 percent by September.
A lack of foreign currency has led Sri Lanka to default on part of its $51 billion foreign debt in April.
An International Monetary Fund delegation was due to continue talks with Sri Lankan officials on Wednesday over a bailout.
But IMF assistance could be delayed if Sri Lanka’s creditors, the largest of which is China, refuse to restructure some of their loans.
Beijing has not publicly backed down its offer to extend credit rather than cut existing loans.
Workers’ remittances, a major source of foreign exchange for Sri Lanka, fell more than 50 percent to $1.6 billion in the six months to June compared to the same period last year.
Rajapaksa, 73, fled to Singapore after months of protests, which culminated in the storming of his official residence by protesters in July. He has since flown to Thailand but wants to return home, according to his party.
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