RUNNING ON EMPTY

POLITICAL UPHEAVAL & REVOLT

Scarce food, combined with price increases, electricity blackouts and shortages of petrol, cooking gas and medicines, provoked a political crisis in Sri Lanka this spring that serves as a discomfiting template for countries facing similar problems.

Months of protests culminated in the resignation of the prime minister, Mahinda Rajapaksa, but even his scalp did not prevent unrest turning violent. Desperate, Sri Lanka obtained a bridging loan from the World Bank to help pay for essential imports. Last Thursday, it defaulted on its debt for the first time ever.

Double-digit inflation that left many Pakistanis unable to afford basic foodstuffs was also a major factor in the fall from power earlier this year of the prime minister, Imran Khan. His attempt to cling to office created a crisis of democracy.

Longer-term factors – repressive governance, corruption, incompetence, polarisation – fuelled unrest in both countries. But dire food shortages and inflation were the catalyst