Sri Lanka’s economic crisis has begun to ease as Sri Lanka on Saturday lifted import restrictions on 286 items, the finance ministry said, as the country emerges from its worst economic crisis in decades. Sri Lanka was caught in a crisis last year as its foreign exchange reserves ran out. Due to which the government had imposed import limits on more than 3,200 items including seafood, electronics and even musical instruments. Sri Lanka had sought financial assistance of $ 2.9 billion from the International Monetary Fund (IMF). After this, he controlled his rising inflation and started replenishing his foreign exchange reserves.

The country’s reserves rose 26 percent to a 17-month high of $3.5 billion in May, helped by strong remittances and tourism income, according to central bank data. There has been an increase of about 24% in the currency this year.

The Finance Ministry said in a statement that with the stabilization of the economy, the import ban on 286 items has been lifted from Friday midnight. But the ban on 928 items will continue, including vehicle imports, which were banned in March 2020.

There will be a 16% reduction in the prices of medicines.

The new list released by the sanctions includes a range from railway carriages to radio broadcast receivers. Sri Lanka will also reduce the prices of 60 essential medicines by 16% from this week. Despite the easing of the crisis, the country still needs to complete debt negotiations with creditors by September. Time its first IMF program review and implement major economic reforms to put its recovery on a sustainable path.

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The IMF expects Sri Lanka’s economy to shrink by about 3% this year after a 7.8% contraction last year, but the government anticipates a return to growth next year.