COLOMBO (Reuters) – Sri Lanka has accredited a four-day work week for public sector workers to assist them address a continual gas scarcity and encourage them to grow food, the federal government mentioned on Tuesday, because it struggles with its worst monetary disaster in many years.
The island nation, which employs about a million folks in its public sector, has been hit by a extreme overseas change scarcity, which has left it struggling to pay for important imports of gas, food and medication.
Many of the nation’s 22 million folks have to queue up at petrol stations for hours and have been enduring lengthy energy cuts for months.
Sri Lanka’s Cabinet late on Monday accredited a proposal for public sector workers to be given go away each Friday for the subsequent three months, partly as a result of the gas scarcity made commuting tough and likewise to encourage them to farm.
“It appears acceptable to grant authorities officers go away of 1 working day … to have interaction in agricultural actions of their backyards or elsewhere as an answer to the food scarcity that’s anticipated,” the federal government data workplace mentioned in a press release.
The United Nations final week warned of a looming humanitarian disaster and it plans to present $47 million to assist greater than one million susceptible folks.
Currency depreciation, rising world commodity costs and a now-reversed coverage to ban chemical fertilizer pushed food inflation to 57% in April.
The authorities is in talks for a bailout bundle with the International Monetary Fund and a delegation is predicted in Colombo on June 20.
The United States can also be prepared to assist, Secretary of State Antony Blinken mentioned after a cellphone name with Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe late on Monday.
“During these economically and politically difficult occasions, the U.S. stands prepared to work with Sri Lanka, in shut coordination with the International Monetary Fund and the worldwide group,” Blinken mentioned on Twitter.
Wickremesinghe mentioned this month Sri Lanka wanted no less than $5 billion to meet important imports for the remainder of the 12 months.
(Reporting by Uditha Jayasinghe, Editing by Devjyot Ghoshal, Robert Birsel)
