Sri Lanka PM offers protesters talks as opposition eyes no-confidence vote

People shout slogans during a protests against Sri Lanka President Gotabaya Rajapaksa in front of the Presidential Secretariat building, amid the country's economic crisis, in Colombo, Sri Lanka, April 12, 2022. REUTERS/Dinuka Liyanawatte

COLOMBO (Reuters) - Sri Lanka's prime minister offered talks on Wednesday with protesters calling for the government to step down over its handing of an economic crisis as the opposition threatened to bring a no-confidence motion against it in parliament.

The island nation of 22 million people is in the throes of its worst financial crisis since independence in 1948, with a foreign currency shortage stalling imports of fuel and medicines and bringing hours of power cuts a day.