NEW Sri Lankan President Anura Kumara Dissanayake has vowed to reopen discussions with the International Monetary Fund and foreign creditors to plot a way out of the country’s worst-ever economic crisis.

“We expect to discuss debt restructuring with the relevant parties and complete the process quickly and obtain the funds,” the left-wing leader said on Wednesday.

The future of the economic recovery plan drafted by former president Ranil Wickremesinghe has been called into question by Mr Dissanayake’s victory in last Saturday’s presidential election.

During the campaign, he pledged to renegotiate the bailout agreement with the IMF, saying that he wanted to make austerity measures more bearable for the poor.

Sri Lanka declared bankruptcy in 2022 and suspended repayments on some $83 billion (around £62bn) in domestic and foreign loans.

That followed a severe foreign exchange crisis that caused a severe shortage of essentials, such as food, medicine, fuel and cooking gas, and extended power cuts.

Sri Lanka’s economic troubles sparked a political crisis that forced then president Gotabaya Rajapaksa to resign in 2022. Parliament then elected Mr Wickremesinghe, who was  prime minister at the time, to replace him.

Many experts have portrayed Mr Dissanayake’s election victory as a rejection by the people of the old political elites in Sri Lanka who they hold responsible for the economic crisis.