Sri Lanka hikes medicine prices

Cash-strapped Sri Lanka announced a 40 per cent price hike for dozens of commonly used medicines on Saturday as the island nation labours through its worst economic crisis in decades.

Months of lengthy blackouts and acute shortages of food, fuel and pharmaceuticals have sparked widespread protests calling for the government’s resignation.

Hospitals have already cancelled routine surgeries after running out of anaesthetics, and Saturday’s directive applies to 60 medicines in short supply.

Antibiotics, non-prescription painkillers and medications for heart conditions and diabetes will all be subject to the price rise, health minister Channa Jayasumana said.

It is the second time in six weeks that pharmaceutical prices have been raised. In mid-March a 30 per cent increase was imposed.

Industry officials said the latest hike was necessary to offset the impact of fuel prices, which have doubled since December.

Meanwhile, prime minister Mahinda Rajapaksa on Friday told The Island that he was ready to accept any decision taken by president Gotabaya Rajapaksa about the post of prime minister.

‘If the president decides to replace me with another person, I am ready to accept that. We must respect and accept the decisions taken by the president,’ the prime minister said.

Earlier, former president and head of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party, Maithripala Sirisena told journalists in Colombo that president Gotabaya Rajapaksa had agreed to form an interim government.

‘The president agreed to form an interim government if all stakeholders were agreeable,’ the former president said, adding that the interim government would be the first step towards holding elections.

‘We do not care about the leadership of the interim government. We need to do something to solve the present crisis,’ he added.

Sirisena said letters inviting political parties to join the interim government would be sent to the leaders of all political parties represented in Parliament in the coming days.

Official figures released on Friday showed Sri Lanka’s inflation rate at nearly 30 per cent in April, a seventh consecutive record high.

Sri Lanka has run out of foreign currency to import sorely needed essential goods.

The government this month announced a default on its $51 billion foreign debt and asked citizens abroad to donate money to help the island out of its economic predicament.

Sri Lanka has asked for an International Monetary Fund bailout, which could take up to three months to arrive.