Sri Lanka PM to take over as finance minister too
Al JazeeraWickremesinghe will present an interim budget within six weeks that will slash government expenditure ‘to the bone’. Sri Lanka’s Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe will take charge as finance minister as well, the president’s office has announced, and will lead talks with the International Monetary Fund as the crisis-hit nation seeks a bailout. “Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe was sworn in as finance, economic stabilisation and national policies minister before President Gotabaya Rajapaksa this morning,” a statement from the president’s office said on Wednesday. “The finance minister’s appointment is extremely crucial because he needs to get the ball rolling on a new budget, talks with the IMF and spearhead fiscal support,” said Lakshini Fernando, macro-economist for Sri Lanka-based investment firm Asia Securities. “Ranil Wickremesinghe is the better option, but we’ll have to see if he has a majority in parliament and if he can do the job of both the prime minister and finance minister.”