With no fuel and no cash, Sri Lanka keeps schools closed

They are in a really bad way.

Sadly probably the first domino to fall

With no fuel, no cash, Sri Lanka keeps schools closed:

One would find it hard to believe that a once cash-rich tea-exporting nation is now cash-strapped, so much so that schools have to be closed.

Has it reached a deal with IMF for a massive loan even with stringent rules attached?

Unimaginable..

Has it reached a deal with IMF for a massive loan even with stringent rules attached?

It was kind of a triple whammy. They are deeply in debt to China, not the IMF. Right before the pandemic there was a terrorist attack that killed tourism. Before they could get tourists to come back the pandemic stopped pretty much all foreign travel. The last whammy was a law they passed to require organic farming. That end result was no revenue from tourism and the collapse of their agricultural sector. Tourism did not recover, then oil prices went through the roof, consuming the last of their meager foreign reserves.

@ Desert Tortoise

They are deeply in debt to China, not the IMF. 

Sri Lanka debt breakdown via:

http://www.erd.gov.lk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=102&Itemid=308&lang=en

India 2%

World Bank 9%

Japan 10%

China 10%

Asia Development Bank 13%

Market Borrowings 47%

Other 9%

So as Desert Tortoise has pointed out, Sri Lanka is deeply in debt to China. Is there a reason you do not point out the other 90%?