FILE PHOTO: Sri Lanka's newly elected President Anura Kumara Dissanayake reads a document after being sworn in as president at the Presidential Secretariat, in Colombo, Sri Lanka, September 23, 2024. Sri Lanka President Media/Handout via REUTERS/File Photo
COLOMBO/LONDON (Reuters) - Sri Lanka's new president won the election decisively, but his toughest task still lies ahead as he seeks to balance promises to aid the nation's poor against the need to keep crucial supplies of cash flowing from the International Monetary Fund.
Marxist-leaning firebrand Anura Kumara Dissanayake, whose tax cut pledges won over many of the two-thirds of his people mired in poverty, takes power as Sri Lanka emerges from its most punishing economic crisis in 70 years and its first international debt default.
