Sri Lanka Forms Expert Panel, Imposes Wealth Tax

Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has formed an expert panel to help his country recover from an unprecedented economic crisis marked by food shortages and widespread protests. The panel of eminent economists has been tasked with addressing the $8.6 billion in debt and soaring inflation by collaborating with the IMF and other potential lenders.

According to a statement issued late Wednesday by the president’s office, the Presidential Advisory Group on Multilateral Engagement and Debt Sustainability would include Indrajit Coomaraswamy, Former director of the Commonwealth Secretariat’s economic affairs division and former director of the central Bank of Sri Lanka.