By The Breton Wood project says that Sri Lanka’s ongoing problem with debt shows we really need big changes.
The Bretton Woods Project strives for e the primary principles of justice, equity, human rights and environmental sustainability.
A paper from December 2023 by the Political Economy Research Institute explained that the main reasons given by big financial groups, like the IMF, and some experts, haven’t really looked at the long-term effects of the policies they’ve pushed on Sri Lanka for the past 16 times they’ve given loans.
Dealing with debt instead of caring about people’s rights and the environment just keeps poor people poor and leads to more violence and inequality. Dr. Thiruni Kelegama and Melani Gunathilaka argue that priorities have been missed out .
Unrealistic Growth Projections
Saying the economy will grow a lot with unrealistic growth projections burdens the poor.
The paper also says the IMF isn’t doing a good job at figuring out if a country can actually pay back its debts. This means that people suffer just to make sure lenders get their money back.
The situation in Sri Lanka shows that the IMF should listen to people who say we need to think about human rights when dealing with debt.
People are worried that leaders are only thinking about short-term fixes for Sri Lanka’s debt instead of finding real solutions.
Dr. Thiruni Kelegama and Melanie Gunathilaka say we need to stop putting debt payments ahead of people’s rights and the environment. Otherwise, we’ll just keep making poverty and inequality worse.
