JAFFNA/COLOMBO – Sri Lankans voted for an end to economic hardship in the country’s presidential election on Sept 21, and new leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake is now gearing up for an unenviable balancing act.

Sri Lanka's central bank kept interest rates unchanged on Friday in line with expectations as the island nation waits for policy clarity after electing a new president to steer it out of the worst financial crisis in decades.

Sri Lanka’s new president Anura Kumara Dissanayake said he plans to start discussions with the International Monetary Fund as part of his focus on establishing stability in the island nation before rolling out other initiatives.

Ms Amarasuriya, 54, is the first woman in more than two decades and the only third woman in the history of independent Sri Lanka to take charge as the prime minister. She is a sociology lecturer and known for her activism on gender and minority rights.

Sri Lanka's newly elected President Anura Kumara Dissanayake has dissolved parliament to clear the way for a snap general election in the debt-ridden country, he said in a government gazette notification on Tuesday.

Sri Lanka’s new president Anura Kumara Dissanayake dissolved the nation’s parliament with effect midnight Tuesday and called for early elections, framing his decision as steps toward combating corruption and renegotiating a $3 billion bailout from the International Monetary Fund.

Since 2022, when mass protests ousted the then-president, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, a coalition assembled by the JVP and its associates has won broad support among middle-class Sri Lankans, whose living standards have been devastated by economic crisis and the austerity policies designed to fix it.

Sri Lanka's new President Anura Kumara Dissanayake said on Wednesday that he plans to begin negotiations with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) immediately to take forward the country's $2.9 billion bailout programme.

Sri Lanka’s central bank kept its benchmark interest rates unchanged in its first meeting since a new president was elected and uncertainty over the International Monetary Fund loan program looms.