its central banks target range of 46 per cent over the medium termmeanwhile sri lankan rupee depreciated against the us dollar by 33 per cent during the year up to april 1 2022 given the cross currency exchange rate movements the sri lankan rupee depreciated against the indian rupee by 316 per cent the euro by 315 per cent the pound sterling by 311 per cent and the japanese yen by 287 per cent during this periodis politics to be blamedas sri lanka battles a crippling economic crisis its hard to overstate the influence of the rajapaksa clan in all this gotabaya who won office in the november 2019 presidential election appointed his brother mahinda as prime ministermahinda first came to power in 2004 initially as prime minister and then as president at the time gotabaya was defence secretary and was notorious for his role in the 2009 operation to end the civil war with tamil rebelsthe rajapaksas were out of power briefly from 2015 when maithripala sirisena and ranil wickremesinghe led the country until wickremesinghe was removed from his post in 2018 sparking a constitutional crisis the rajapaksas party won a landslide victory in the august 2020 general election and quickly restored sweeping executive powers to the presidency that had been previously curbeda policeman inspects a bus burnt during demonstrations against the government over sri lankas crippling economic crisis photo afpwhen the economy started dwindling the rajapaksa government not only resisted aid from neigbouring countries but also held off talks with international monetary fund imf for months opposition leaders and some financial experts urged the government to act but it held its ground hoping for tourism to bounce back and remittances to recovereventually aware of the scale of the brewing crisis the government did seek help from countries including india and china regional superpowers who have traditionally jostled for influence over the strategically located islandin all india has provided support worth over 35 billion to the island nation this yearearlier in 2022 president rajapaksa asked china to restructure repayments on around 35 billion of debt owed to beijing which in late 2021 also provided sri lanka with a 15 billion yuandenominated swapin a statement today central bank of sri lankas governor nandalal weerasinghe said if we dont have political stability very soon we will run out of what little petrol and diesel left at that point people will get on the streets to protest peacefully or violentlycollapse beyond redemptionsri lankas economy will collapse beyond redemption unless a new government is appointed within two days to restore political stability the central bank chief saidhe said the latest wave of mob violence derailed the banks recovery plans and the resignation of the prime minister on monday and the lack of a replacement were complicating mattershe said political stability was vital to implementing economic reforms aimed at addressing the countrys debt crisis and the acute shortage of foreign exchange to import essentialsif there is no government in the next two days the