colombo chamila nilanthi is tired of all the waiting the 47yearold mother of two spent three days lining up to get kerosene in the sri lankan town of gampaha northeast of the capital colombo two weeks earlier she spent three days in a queue for cooking gas but came home with nonei am totally fed up exhausted she said i dont know how long we have to do thisa few years ago sri lankas economy was growing strongly enough to provide jobs and financial security for most its now in a state of collapse dependent on aid from india and other countries as its leaders desperately try to negotiate a bailout with the international monetary fundwhats happening in this south asian island nation of 22 million is worse than the usual financial crises seen in the developing world its a complete economic breakdown that has left ordinary people struggling to buy food fuel and other necessities and has brought political unrest and violenceit really is veering quickly into a humanitarian crisis said scott morris a senior fellow at the center for global development in washingtonsuch disasters are more commonly seen in poorer countries in subsaharan africa or in wartorn afghanistan in middleincome countries such as sri lanka they are rarer but not unheard of 6 million venezuelans have fled their oilrich home country to escape a seemingly unending political crisis that has devastated the economyindonesia once touted as an asian tiger economy endured depressionlevel deprivation in the late 1990s that led to riots and political unrest and swept away a strong man whod held power for three decades the country now is a democracy and a member of the group of 20 biggest industrial economiessri lankas crisis is largely the result of staggering economic mismanagement combined with fallout from the pandemic which along with 2019 terrorism attacks devastated its important tourism industry the covid19 crisis also disrupted the flow of payments home from sri lankans working abroadthe government took on big debts and slashed taxes in 2019 depleting the treasury just as covid19 hit sri lankas foreign exchange reserves plummeted leaving it unable to pay for imports or defend its beleaguered currency the rupeeordinary sri lankans especially the poor are paying the price they wait for days for cooking gas and petrol in lines that can extend more than 2 kilometers 12 miles sometimes like chamila nilanthi they go home with nothingeleven people have died so far waiting for gasoline the latest was a 63yearold man found dead inside his vehicle on the outskirts of colombo unable to get gasoline some have given up driving and resorted to bicycles or public transportation to get aroundthe government has closed urban schools and some universities and is giving civil servants every friday off for three months to conserve fuel and allow them time to grow their own fruit and vegetablesfood price inflation is running at 57 according to government data and 70 of sri lankan households surveyed by