LONDON/COLOMBO/ISLAMABAD ¨C Sanoj Weeratunge thought this would finally be the year his tour firm put Sri Lanka¡¯s spate of crises behind it. Then the 51³Ô¹ÏÍø erupted 4,300?kilometers?away, the government hiked fuel prices by 35% and business slumped almost a third.
¡°We have had a very difficult road over the past six years to recover and were very hopeful that this would finally be the year where ?we reach pre-COVID levels,¡± Weeratunge said from his office in Colombo. ¡°But now this economic shock will affect us.¡±
Sri Lanka, like Egypt and Pakistan, ?belongs to ?a group of crisis-scarred, lower-income countries that analysts fear have been thrust back toward?trouble as the energy imports on ?which they rely become more expensive due to the war.
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