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Dimuthu Attanayake

Sri Lanka’s historic election of its first socialist president has sparked guarded optimism and doubts among analysts about his capacity to renegotiate the terms of the International Monetary Fund’s loans to the heavily indebted country.
Anura Kumara Dissanayake, leader of the leftist National People’s Power (NPP) coalition, was sworn in as Sri Lanka’s ninth president on Monday after securing 42.3 per cent of the votes in Saturday’s presidential election.
“I am not a conjuror, I am not a magician, I am a common citizen,” Dissanayake said during his oath-taking ceremony. “I have strengths and limitations, things I know and things I don’t. My responsibility is to be part of a collective effort to end this crisis.”
His NPP coalition, which includes the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) and 20 other political groups, trade unions, and civil society organisations, had surged in popularity amid the nation’s worst economic crisis in decades.
In the 2020 general elections, the NPP garnered just 3.84 per cent of the vote. But as Sri Lanka grappled with crippling shortages of essentials such as medicine and fuel in 2022, and as the IMF’s US$2.9 billion bailout programme imposed austerity measures that strained daily life, Dissanayake emerged as a beacon of hope for many.
In his manifesto, he pledged to alleviate the burden of the IMF’s austerity measures – which include cost-recovery-based utility prices and a wider tax base – and hinted at renegotiating the terms of the IMF programme. He also proposed revisiting an IMF tool for assessing a country’s ability to service its debt or Debt Sustainability Analysis (DSA).

Despite the optimism surrounding Dissanayake’s election, some Sri Lankan analysts remain sceptical about the NPP’s ability to make significant changes to the IMF programme.
Ahilan Kadirgamar, a political economist at the University of Jaffna, told This Week in Asia that revisiting the IMF programme and changes to the DSA were crucial “if they are to provide relief to the people, and to stimulate the economy by increasing production”.
However, he cautioned that such renegotiations require significant “political will” and consensus, which might be challenging given the NPP’s limited representation in parliament – it currently holds only three seats.
Late on Tuesday, Dissanayake dissolved parliament, calling for a snap general election on November 14 – almost a year early – and setting November 21 as the date for the new assembly’s first session.
Speaking at the Summit of the Future in the UN headquarters in New York on Saturday, Secretary-General of UN Trade and Development Rebeca Grynspan called for a reassessment of the debt sustainability of different indebted countries.
“Debt sustainability analysis is mostly measured in terms of capacity to pay ... Defaulting on your development, to not default on your debt, is the very contradiction of sustainability,” Grynspan said.
Chayu Damsinghe, head of macroeconomic advisory at Colombo-based Frontier Research, did not expect major renegotiations between Sri Lanka and the IMF.
“I don’t think changing the [debt analysis] conversations was on the table. The difference is going to be in terms of how people respond – whether they are more confident, happier or worried about being under an NPP government, and how markets react to the fact,” he said.


Rajni Gamage, a political scientist at the National University of Singapore’s Institute of South Asian Studies, shared similar concerns. While the NPP has promised to pursue policies that would generate growth and move away from an unsustainable debt-driven model, they were constrained by the economic crisis and the need to raise revenue, Gamage said.
“Even as the NPP claims it can renegotiate the IMF programme, how can it ensure enough revenue is raised in this short period to meet those targets?” Gamage asked. “And if enough revenue is not raised, how can it deliver on the high expectations it has built among its supporter base?”
Harini Amarasuriya, an NPP parliamentarian tipped to become the next prime minister following the resignation of Dinesh Gunawardena, told the media that the party came to power with a “mandate”.
“We have a social contract which we have to implement,” she said.
Addressing concerns about the party’s inexperience in governance, Amarasuriya added: “We don’t have experience in making the country bankrupt for sure, but we will gain experience in building the country.”


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Anura Kumara Dissanayake is sworn in as Sri Lanka’s ninth president in Colombo on Monday. Photo: Xinhua

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From left: Anura Kumara Dissanayake from National People’s Power; Sri Lanka’s incumbent President Ranil Wickremesinghe; Sajith Premadasa of Samagi Jana Balawegaya. Photos: EPA-EFE, AFP, AP

A worker pulls a handcart loaded with potato sacks at a market area in Colombo on Monday. Sri Lankans face multidimensional vulnerabilities in education, health, and living standards. Photo: Reuters

Namal Rajapaksa (left) talks with his father, former Sri Lankan president Mahinda Rajapaksa, at an event in Colombo on September 2. Photo: EPA-EFE

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 A Tamil mother mourning at the commemoration held to remember the fallen Tamils at the Northern village of Mullivaikkal, on May 18, where, 15 years ago, the last battle of Sri Lanka’s civil war was fought. Photo: Dimuthu Attanayake

A Sri Lankan Tamil war survivor is consoled by another as she cries for her deceased family members during a remembrance ceremony on a small strip of land where thousands of civilians were trapped during the last stages of the country’s civil war in Mullivaikkal, Sri Lanka, on May 17. Photo: AP

An ethnic Tamil war survivor is consoled by others as she cries for her deceased family members during a remembrance ceremony in Mullivaikkal, Sri Lanka, on May 17. Photo: AP

Muttan Devindran shows a picture of his youngest son who went missing during the last stages of the civil war, at the commemoration of the fallen Tamils, in the Northern village of Mullivaikkal on May 18. Photo: Dimuthu Attanayake

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President Anura Kumara Dissanayake promises Sri Lankans that his coalition government aims to end the country’s economic and debt crisis


President Anura Kumara Dissanayake promises Sri Lankans that his coalition government aims to end the country’s economic and debt crisis.


International Monetary Fund (IMF)

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Sri Lanka’s new president sparks optimism even as doubts over IMF loan revamp persist

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}President Anura Kumara Dissanayake promises Sri Lankans that his coalition government aims to end the country’s economic and debt crisis

President Anura Kumara Dissanayake promises Sri Lankans that his coalition government aims to end the country’s economic and debt crisis