Who will follow Sri Lanka into a debt crisis?

Sri Lanka defaulted on its debt in May as soaring global food prices and a tourism slowdown collided with years of profligate state spending. Which countries could follow?

Protesters in Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka has been plunged into civil unrest with inflation at 54.6% and essentials running short.
(Image credit: © ISHARA S. KODIKARA/AFP via Getty Images)

Sri Lanka will not be the last country to plunge into a debt crisis. The island nation defaulted in May this year as soaring global food prices and a tourism slowdown caused by Covid-19 collided with years of profligate state spending. Inflation is running at 54.6% and essentials such as food and medicine have run short.

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Markets editor

Alex is an investment writer who has been contributing to MoneyWeek since 2015. He has been the magazine’s markets editor since 2019. 

Alex has a passion for demystifying the often arcane world of finance for a general readership. While financial media tends to focus compulsively on the latest trend, the best opportunities can lie forgotten elsewhere. 

He is especially interested in European equities – where his fluent French helps him to cover the continent’s largest bourse – and emerging markets, where his experience living in Beijing, and conversational Chinese, prove useful. 

Hailing from Leeds, he studied Philosophy, Politics and Economics at the University of Oxford. He also holds a Master of Public Health from the University of Manchester.