During the country's worst-ever economic crisis, which has driven rampant inflation and spurred protests that last week brought down the president, Sri Lankans are buying less, eating less and working less
This photo taken on July 17, 2022 shows Milton Perera looking on in his kitchen in the Slave Island neighbourhood of Colombo. In the face of a months-long economic crisis that has seen rampant inflation and protests that last week brought down the president, Sri Lankans are buying less, eating less and working less. Image: Arun SANKAR / AFP
His hair is neatly combed but his cheeks are sunken and veins visible on his gaunt frame: like many Sri Lankans, Milton Pereira and his family cannot afford to buy enough food.
During the country's worst-ever economic crisis, which has driven rampant inflation and spurred protests that last week brought down the president, Sri Lankans are buying less, eating less and working less.
"It's very difficult to live, even a loaf of bread is expensive," Pereira told AFP outside his modest home in Slave Island, a poor enclave of the capital Colombo.
"If we take one meal, we skip another."