Sri Lanka seeks IMF advice amid worsening crisis

Sri Lanka has asked for  "advice" from the International Monetary Fund amid a worsening economic crisis, the finance minister said Wednesday, signalling Colombo could seek an international bailout.

The island's tourism sector and worker remittances, the government's main sources of income, have been battered by the pandemic.

Colombo imposed a broad import ban to try to save foreign currency, and the island nation of 22 million has since seen shortages of food and fuel as well as electricity rationing, while rating agencies warn it might not be able to make payments on its $35 billion foreign debt.

Finance minister Basil Rajapaksa said Colombo wrote to the IMF seeking technical support to manage the economic crisis.

An IMF team will arrive in Sri Lanka  "in the next few days and advise us on how to deal with the situation", Rajapaksa said at a public ceremony in the capital. 

"I can't say whether we will accept their advice or not, but they will tell us what we don't know," he added.