A Comprehensive International Dialogue Essential to Address Global Challenges in 2024

President Ranil Wickremesinghe at the Berlin Global Dialogue under the theme ‘Worldwide Economic Shocks and the Impact on the Global South” 

I must begin by thanking Professor Lars-Hendrik Röller, Chairman Berlin Global Dialogue, for inviting me to this inaugural session.

Where the way I look at it, the global economy has many shocks since in the last two decades. Starting from 2008, we’ve gone through a series of the European debt crisis. Then we’ve had the COVID-19 pandemic, and the economic shocks that have come from it, the whole issue of funding for climate change, and the sovereign debt crisis.

I don’t think in any other period of modern history have we gone through this type of a crisis. And in all these instances, it’s the developing economies and the global south that has suffered extremely. We are now faced with stubbornly high inflation in advanced economies, oil prices edging towards US $100 a barrel, and monetary tightening by the global central banks.

One example is that Sri Lanka’s export to Europe has not increased at all this year. That’s an indication of how we are being affected as we try to recover from the crisis we face.

The confluences of factors face serious risk for many developing countries. In the global south, we are facing rising import costs, food, energy, insecurity, and the problems of our exports. The resulting balance of payment stress translates into a weaker economy for all of us. The difference between the advanced economies and the developing nations is that you all have all the buffers and reserves to deal with these shocks. We haven’t. And it’s from here that the sovereign debt crisis started.