Presents shocking economic forecasts

Meanwhile during his statement, Wickremesinghe presented some shocking forecasts for the Sri Lanka as he estimated the economy to shrink by 20 percent in the two years through 2023 to US$ 76 billion from its peak level of US$ 94 billion reached in 2018.

Sri Lanka is undoing at least a decade worth economic advances it made in just two years due to sheer economic mismanagement. 
While the Central Bank has projected the economy to decline by 4-5 percent in 2022, the IMF and the World Bank have projected even deeper contractions of between 6-7 percent in the current year before containing the decline to 1 percent in 2023, signalling Sri Lanka will remain in a recession for the next two years. 

As Sri Lanka will have to skew towards more borrowings to emerge from the current economic depths, the Premier forecasted the public debt as a percentage of GDP to peak at 140 percent before bringing it down to 95 percent only by 2032.

The steeper decline in the value of the rupee against the dollar has also contributed to the inflated public debt. 
Meanwhile, in what could be the most unsettling economic forecast, Wickremesinghe projected the headline inflation at 60 percent by the year end before bringing it down to the desired range of 4 to 6 percent only by 2025, signalling that people will have to experience brutal hyperinflation which will make hundreds of thousands jobless and throw millions into poverty, malnutrition and hunger.  However, in a bid to alleviate the worst which could befall on the people as a result of the lingering crisis, Wickremesinghe said that steps had been taken to ensure food security which would be further reinforced in the upcoming interim budget and support could be forthcoming from international organisations such as the World Food Programme.  Further, social security payments would also be targeted at the most vulnerable segments of the society, he added.