President Anura Kumara Dissanayake has hit back at fears that Sri Lanka is heading into another 2022-style economic freefall. Despite growing public anxiety over recent exchange rate pressures, the President promised that the country would never be allowed to slip back into a major economic crisis under his watch.
Addressing the crowd, he admitted that the global economic climate is tough right now because of the ongoing Middle East conflict. But unlike the previous crisis, he made it clear that this is an outside problem, and the government has more than enough strength to keep it under control.
“Some say that this is like 2022. It will not be like 2022. In 2022, we did not even have sufficient rupees, the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) did not have dollars either. The current situation is not like that.”
— President Anura Kumara Dissanayake
The Reality of the Numbers: Then vs. Now
To put things into perspective, the President broke down the numbers to show exactly why Sri Lanka’s current financial footing is fundamentally different from the collapse four years ago:
| Financial Metric | The 2022 Crash | Present Day (May 2026) |
| CBSL Dollar Reserves | ~USD 50 Million | ~USD 7 Billion |
| Upcoming Inflows | None at the time | USD 700 Million (Expected soon) |
| Market Status | Total System Collapse | Temporary Dollar Shortage |
| Essential Goods Supply | Severe Shortages & Lines | Fully Managed & Guaranteed |
Managing the Outside Pressures
The President openly explained why the US dollar has been climbing against the rupee over the last few days. When the war in the Middle East started escalating again, global fuel import costs went up, pushing up the prices of all imported items. Because of this, more dollars are naturally flowing out of the country right now. At the same time, the local tourism sector and some key export revenues have taken a brief hit.
Even with this pressure, the President gave a firm guarantee to the public:
“However, the economy must be managed systematically. We will never allow any shortage of imported fuel, gas, milk powder, or fertilizer. I can assure you of that. In the past, the country experienced shortages of fuel, milk powder, gas, and fertilizer, but such a situation will not come.”
He noted that the government has always stepped up during tough times, spending heavily on public relief after the devastating hit from Cyclone Ditwah and during the recent import price hikes.
Cutting Down Political Privileges
Shifting his focus to local governance, President Dissanayake reminded everyone that the public gave his administration a clear mandate. That mandate wasn’t just about rebuilding a strong economy—it was about stopping racism, punishing corrupt individuals, stripping away the excessive perks enjoyed by politicians, and making sure the law applies equally to everyone.
He claimed the government is already making huge progress on these fronts, stating that they have taken steps to completely strip away unlimited political privileges, including standard pension setups, to turn politicians into a group that genuinely works for the public.
The President concluded by emphasizing that if this job of treating everyone equally under the law doesn’t happen under his administration, it won’t happen under any other government. Today, he stressed, the law is being enforced purely on the facts, regardless of anyone’s wealth, power, or social status. It is exactly because the government has stopped wasting money and started earning proper revenue that they were able to allocate funds to resume the Nintavur Cultural Centre project today.
Last modified: May 23, 2026
