Sri Lanka shows how broken debt negotiations have become

For sri lanka’s politicians September 27th was meant to be the light at the end of the tunnel. After more than a year of economic free fall—in which the former president fled protests, gdp shrank by 9% and billions of dollars of arrears piled up—the imf was in town, ready to release $330m from a bail-out agreed in March. There was even talk that the country’s creditors would reach a deal to cut back its debts.