Historic Victory for Sri Lankan Left – Can They Deliver? – Devaka Gunawardena Pt. 1/2

In November 2024, Anura Kumara Dissanayake’s National People’s Power (NPP) coalition won a two-thirds majority in Sri Lanka’s general elections, marking a historic win for the Sri Lankan left. NPP’s victory came at a time of prolonged economic crisis exacerbated by the crushing terms of Sri Lanka’s IMF agreement. Political economist Dr. Devaka Gunawardena traces the factors leading to Sri Lanka’s economic woes and how international sovereign bonds (ISBs) held by private equity firms such as BlackRock constitute a large segment of Sri Lanka’s debt. Given the government’s recent private creditor debt restructuring agreement, can the NPP still deliver on its campaign promises of wealth redistribution and reversing austerity?