The Government yesterday denied the scarcity of essential goods in the market, insisting that imports were being facilitated despite the challenging foreign reserves situation.

“There is no scarcity of essential goods,” Cabinet Co-Spokesman and Plantation Industries Minister Dr. Ramesh Pathirana said, responding to a question posed at the post-Cabinet meeting media briefing yesterday.

He also said the Government had enabled import of essential goods and fuel regardless of the challenging foreign reserves in the country on account of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The recent International Sovereign Bond repayment of $ 1 billion has no impact in this regard, though many were doubtful the Government will not be able to honour our debt. We have sufficient foreign reserves for essential imports,” Pathirana claimed.

In May, Sri Lanka had spent $ 253.6 million on consumer goods including food and beverages, dairy, vegetables, sugar and $ 330 million on fuel. In the first five months of 2021, $ 1.3 billion was spent on consumer goods imports and $ 1.7 billion on fuel, according to the Central Bank.

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