<p>Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa will finish the remaining two years of his term despite months-long street protests calling for his ouster but won’t stand for re-election, he told <em>Bloomberg</em>.</p>.<p>Sri Lanka is suffering its worst economic crisis in decades.</p>.<p>"I have been given a mandate for five years. I will not contest again," Rajapaksa said on Monday in an interview at his official residence in Colombo.</p>.<p><strong>Also Read: <a href="https://www.deccanherald.com/opinion/in-perspective/what-ails-the-sri-lankan-polity-1114179.html" target="_blank">What ails the Sri Lankan polity?</a> </strong></p>.<p>Anti-government protestors blame Rajapaksa and his family for decisions that led to severe shortages of everything from fuel to medicine, stoking inflation of 40 per cent and forcing a historic debt default.</p>.<p>Thousands of demonstrators have camped outside the president’s seaside office since mid-March, forcing him to retreat to his barricaded official residence about a kilometre away.</p>.<p>The economic tailspin spiraled into political turmoil with the resignation of the president’s old brother -- Mahinda Rajapaksa -- as the nation’s prime minister after clashes between government supporters and the protesters turned bloody in May.</p>.<p>Gotabaya Rajapaksa and his new Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe are now seeking about $4 billion in aid this year from the International Monetary Fund and countries including India and China.</p>.<p>Sri Lanka’s rupee has lost about 82 per cent over the past year and the central bank on Monday flagged the possibility of a further correction. The nation’s debt is trading in the deeply-distressed territory.</p>
<p>Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa will finish the remaining two years of his term despite months-long street protests calling for his ouster but won’t stand for re-election, he told <em>Bloomberg</em>.</p>.<p>Sri Lanka is suffering its worst economic crisis in decades.</p>.<p>"I have been given a mandate for five years. I will not contest again," Rajapaksa said on Monday in an interview at his official residence in Colombo.</p>.<p><strong>Also Read: <a href="https://www.deccanherald.com/opinion/in-perspective/what-ails-the-sri-lankan-polity-1114179.html" target="_blank">What ails the Sri Lankan polity?</a> </strong></p>.<p>Anti-government protestors blame Rajapaksa and his family for decisions that led to severe shortages of everything from fuel to medicine, stoking inflation of 40 per cent and forcing a historic debt default.</p>.<p>Thousands of demonstrators have camped outside the president’s seaside office since mid-March, forcing him to retreat to his barricaded official residence about a kilometre away.</p>.<p>The economic tailspin spiraled into political turmoil with the resignation of the president’s old brother -- Mahinda Rajapaksa -- as the nation’s prime minister after clashes between government supporters and the protesters turned bloody in May.</p>.<p>Gotabaya Rajapaksa and his new Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe are now seeking about $4 billion in aid this year from the International Monetary Fund and countries including India and China.</p>.<p>Sri Lanka’s rupee has lost about 82 per cent over the past year and the central bank on Monday flagged the possibility of a further correction. The nation’s debt is trading in the deeply-distressed territory.</p>