Ranil Wickremesinghe must persuade suffering Sri Lankans to endure more pain

Gotabaya Rajapaksa, the former president of Sri Lanka, was told that the economy was in free fall. The covid-19 pandemic hit tourism hard and, just as visitors began to return, Russia’s war in Ukraine pushed up fuel and food prices. But external shocks were only part of the problem. The main cause of Sri Lanka’s misery, and the reason protesters stormed the presidential palace on July 9th, was mismanagement. Errors by Mr Rajapaksa and his brothers, who treated the government like a family business, caused inflation to spiral, the currency to collapse and foreign reserves to evaporate.Enter Ranil Wickremesinghe, who took over as president on July 21st, a week after Mr Rajapaksa fled the country. The burden of guiding Sri Lanka out of its worst-ever economic crisis now falls on him. Protesters remain in the streets. Anger over power cuts and shortages of food, fuel and medicine is unabated. Yet somehow Mr Wickremesinghe must persuade his people to endure more pain, because the reforms needed to turn round will involve further sacrifice.