Cash-strapped Sri Lanka seeks IMF bailout

Sri Lanka will seek an International Monetary Fund bailout, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa said on Wednesday, to battle record inflation and unprecedented food and fuel shortages as the country runs out of dollars to finance imports.

The South Asia nation is in the throes of its worst economic crisis since independence from Britain in 1948 with long queues forming outside gas stations and rolling daily blackouts imposed across the country. "Subsequent to my discussions with the International Monetary Fund, I have decided to work with them," Rajapaksa said in an address to the nation a day after meeting with an IMF delegation in Colombo.

A huge crowd stormed the president's seaside office over runaway prices with the rising cost of food, medicine and other essential goods causing serious hardship for Sri Lanka's 22-million people.