Sri Lanka, also in the midst of a fuel crisis, defaults on its debt

Central Bank of Sri Lanka.
(Image credit: Buddhika Weerasinghe/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Sri Lanka has, for the first time in its history, defaulted on its debts, as citizens and officials reckon with an "economic and political crisis" brought on by COVID-19 and the war in Ukraine, The Guardian reports Thursday.

The governor of Sri Lanka's central bank said the bank was now in a "preemptive default" after the deadline passed for making $78 million worth of payments to international creditors, The Guardian notes.

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Brigid Kennedy

Brigid Kennedy worked at The Week from 2021 to 2023 as a staff writer, junior editor and then story editor, with an interest in U.S. politics, the economy and the music industry.