Bankrupt Sri Lanka celebrated independence, but now it is back to hard economic realities

Sri Lanka celebrated the 75th anniversary of independence from Britain last Saturday. This was done at a time when Sri Lanka had been bankrupted economically and had fallen to an irrecoverable depth politically and socially. Given the present dire state of the economy, many critics had requested President Ranil Wickremesinghe not to spend Government’s hard-earned money for this celebration.

However, the President justified his action that if Sri Lanka does not do it, the rest of the world will judge that Sri Lanka is unable to celebrate even the independence. However, another third world leader from Africa, the Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan, has cancelled the official celebration of independence and diverted the earmarked sum of $ 445,000 to build dormitories for schools catering to students of special needs (available at: https://apnews.com/article/africa-kenya-east-tanzania-86b2712377fd8ccb9abbdbbf876bd0f6). 

Sri Lanka’s celebrations that had costed the coffers nearly Rs. 200 million directly and several times of that amount indirectly are now over, and the country is back to its economic, political, and social woes. 

How bad is the country’s situ from the economy’s point?