Colombo - Sri Lankan prime minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe warned of a food shortage as the nation battles a devastating economic crisis. He vowed though that the government will buy enough fertiliser for the next planting season to boost harvests.

A decision in April last year by President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to ban all chemical fertilisers drastically cut crop yields and although the government has reversed the ban, no substantial imports have yet taken place.

"While there may not be time to obtain fertiliser for this Yala (May-August) season, steps are being taken to ensure adequate stocks for the Maha (September-March) season," Wickremesinghe said in a message on Twitter late on Thursday.

President Gotabaya Rajapaksa appointed nine new members to the cabinet on Friday, including to the critical health, trade and tourism ministries. But he did not name a finance minister and the portfolio is likely to be retained by Wickremesinghe.

Tourism-dependent Sri Lanka is facing a dire shortage of foreign exchange, fuel and medicines, and economic activity has slowed to a crawl.

The central bank governor said on Thursday foreign exchange had been secured from a World Bank loan and remittances to pay for fuel and cooking gas shipments, but supplies are still to flow through.

Inflation could rise to a staggering 40% in the next couple of months but it was being driven largely by supply-side pressures and measures by the bank and government were already reining in demand-side inflation, the governor said.

The G7 economic powers has promised efforts to provide debt relief for Sri Lanka, group finance chiefs said on Thursday in a draft communique from a meeting in Germany after Sri Lanka defaulted on its sovereign debt.

A spokesperson for the International Monetary Fund said it was monitoring developments very closely and that a virtual mission to Sri Lanka was expected to conclude technical talks on a possible loan programme on May 24.

The UN had warned that some countries could face long-term famines if Ukraine's exports are not restored to pre-war levels. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the war had worsened food insecurity in poorer nations due to rising prices.

Global food prices are almost 30% higher than the same time last year, according to the UN.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the world faced the "greatest global food security crisis of our time" which had been exacerbated by what he called Russian President Vladimir Putin's "war of choice".
-Reuters/BBC