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Will the elation be short lived ? – By Aubrey Joachim There was dancing and jubilation in the streets. Firecrackers were lit in the suburbs. It was reminiscent of 1996 – when Sri Lanka’s national cricket team won the World Cup. Actually it was March 20th 2023 the day the ‘lender of last resort’, the International Monetary Fund – IMF – finally approved its life-line to the country a year after it defaulted on its loans and bonds. The 3 Billion Dollar loan is merely a trickle of what is needed and will just about keep the patient alive on life support. It is being drip fed in 9 tranches over 4 years, subject to strict conditions that the IMF will closely audit and scrutinise every 6 months. This is the 17th time that Sri Lanka has obtained an IMF rescue package – most of the previous have been aborted. ...