Currently, Sri Lanka is being confronted by mass demonstrations as a form of protest against the economic crisis. Over the past few months, since late 2021, Sri Lanka has been grappling with the worst economic crisis since its independence in 1948. This crisis has caused prices of basic necessities to rise sharply and stocks of basic foodstuffs, fuel, and medicine to run low. The inability of the government of Sri Lanka's President, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, to pay for imports and deliveries of fuel caused by a foreign exchange shortage led to a power outage in parts of Sri Lanka that lasted for 13 hours on Wednesday (30/3/22). The blackout happened in the culmination of a wave of mass protests marked by the blocking of major roads in various cities and calls for prosecution for the sacking of Governor Ajith Cabraal outside the Central Bank of Sri Lanka. The peak of the crisis and demonstrations caused the ranks of the government's cabinet to resign en masse from Tuesday (4/4/22) to Wednesday (5/4/22) yesterday.

Critics say that the root of Sri Lanka’s crisis lies in continued economic mismanagement by governments which created and maintained twin deficits––a situation in which the country's expenditure is greater than its income and when the production of goods and services is insufficient. However, the current economic crisis was accelerated by the adoption of a tax cut policy to stimulate the economy by Rajapaksa during the 2019 general election, shortly before the spread of the COVID-19 virus which also worsened the Sri Lankan economy. According to Murtaza Jafferjee, head of the think-tank Advocata Institute, the policy was a misdiagnosis of the economic problems Sri Lanka was facing at that time.

Sri Lanka's economic crisis is also exacerbated by the failure of Sri Lanka's debt management program whose status depends on aspects of the tourism industry and the payment of money from foreign workers weakened by the pandemic. With the failure of this debt management program, foreign exchange reserves fell by almost 70 (seventy) percent within two years. In addition, the Rajapaksa government's decision to ban all chemical fertiliser products by 2021 has hit the country's agricultural sector and triggered a decline in rice yields which ultimately disrupted Sri Lanka's agricultural production.

To deal with the crisis, the Rajapaksa government has planned and implemented a series of programs. In April, Sri Lanka plans to discuss a loan program with the IMF (International Monetary Fund). Prior to this move, in the last few months, Sri Lanka had gradually devalued its currency––which has been shown to have a negative impact towards society. Besides the assistance from the IMF, the Rajapaksa government is also seeking assistance from China and India, particularly for fuel assistance from India. The shipment of diesel under the $500 million credit line signed with India in February is expected to arrive on Saturday (9/4/22). In addition, Sri Lanka and India have signed a $1 billion credit line for imports of basic necessities, including food and medicine. The Rajapaksa government has also requested at least another $1 billion from New Delhi. Meanwhile, China is currently considering offering a $1.5 billion credit facility and up to $1 billion in separate loans after providing a $1.5 billion CBSL swap and a $1.3 billion syndicated loan to tackle the crisis hitting this archipelagic state. Prior to this aid program, the Sri Lanka government had a total external debt of about $4 billion by 2022, including a $1 billion International Sovereign Bond (ISB) due in July. The ISB makes up the bulk of Sri Lanka's $12.55 billion foreign debt with the Asian Development Bank, Japan, and China among the other major lenders.

Based on Kompas.com's records, since the end of 2021, cooking oil supplies in Indonesia have experienced a drastic decline and price hike. Facing this phenomenon, the Ministry of Trade of the Republic of Indonesia (Kemendag RI) has set a series of policies, starting from determining the Highest Retail Price (HRP) to Domestic Market Obligation (DMO) and Domestic Price Obligation (DPO) starting January 27, 2022. DMO is a policy that requires all migrant producers who do export to allocate 30% of their production volume for domestic needs, while the DPO is applied to regulate the price of crude palm oil (CPO) in the country. With the enactment of the HRP policy of Rp. 14,000/liter with the difference in prices in several packaging variations, cooking oil supplies are increasingly becoming scarce as cooking oil prices fall in the market.

Recent developments in the government's attempts to ensure the availability of cooking oil have now led to the revocation of the HRP for packaged and bulk cooking oil and the revocation of the DMO and DPO policies. The revocation of the cooking oil HRP policy by the government aims to get a new balance through the market mechanism. The government also reported that with the implementation of DMO policy some time ago, producers found it difficult to ensure supplies of cooking oil due to higher CPO prices than HRP so that several oil processing factories were forced to close because they could no longer run their factories. The consequence of the revocation of the policy is the return of the domestic packaged cooking oil price to the world CPO price of Rp. 24,000/liter. Along with the revocation of the HRP, currently cooking oil supplies have returned to normal and are nearing an abundance. Based on information obtained from several sellers (18/3/22), the number of store requests for cooking oil needs has been met up to 100%.

In line with the revocation of the HRP, DPO, and DMO policies, the Government established a policy of increasing CPO export rates with the aim of ensuring that cooking oil raw materials are still available domestically. According to the Indonesian Minister of Trade, when the CPO price is above the level of US$1,000 per tonne, there will be a flat tariff of US$175 and for every CPO price increase of US$50 per tonne, there will be a tariff increase of US$20 per ton for CPO. Therefore, the export levy plus export duty from the original US$375 per tonne will change to US$675 per tonne. Hence, exporters will most likely choose to sell CPO domestically rather than abroad because it will be more profitable. This mechanism is considered to be able to maintain the stability of domestic supply.

Monday (28/2/22), the Russian currency, the Ruble, was observed to have fallen drastically. The ruble plunged into 106.01 per dollar in Moscow and closed Wednesday (2/3/2022) at 106.02 after hitting a record intraday low of 118.35, recording a drop of more than 10% on the day. This decline is a result of the war that occurred between Russia and Ukraine, where countries in the world impose economic sanctions on Russia. A series of sanctions in the form of blocking major Russian banks from the international payment system or the Society Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT)––a system that migrates billions of dollars from thousands of banks and other financial institutions around the world––comes from large and superpower countries, such as the United States and Europe. The impact of this blocking has prompted old Russian investors to seek new investment asylum to new safer zones, namely the yen and the US dollar.

In addition to the Ruble's fall, shares in major Russian banks also slumped as a result of sanctions imposed by western countries. Share price of Sberbank––Russia's largest lender––down 95% on the London Stock Exchange on Wednesday (2/3/22) to trade at $0.01. This fall marked the lowest point in Sberbank's share price which led to its withdrawal from the European market. A spokesman for Sberbank stated that it, in particular its European subsidiaries, had experienced abnormal cash outflows following the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Apart from Sberbank, major Russian stocks, including Novatek, Lukoil, and Rosneft, also experienced similar declines. In order to stabilize financial markets, the Central Bank of Russia intervened in the foreign exchange market and also expanded the Lombard list. Apart from Russian stocks, global stocks also experienced a similar decline to the Jakarta Composite Index (JCI), where the JCI recorded a fall into the red zone with a decline of nearly 2% on Thursday (24/2/22). US stock markets were also sluggish, with the Dow Jones Indus AVG, S&P 500 Index to Nasdaq Composite slumping.

The sharp devaluation undergone by the Ruble has the potential to cause inflation and will most likely result in a bad impact on the Russian population who are likely to be suffocated by the prices of the soaring goods. Prices for homemade products, which are mostly imported, will skyrocket and the cost of traveling abroad will increase. In addition to inflation, the stock market could be in danger of closing. This economic downturn could also affect Russian military operations, with possible pressure on the smooth running of the operation. Russia's internal economic turmoil is expected to worsen shortly as the ruble's slumping value and falling stock prices forced supply activity to stop as a result of low demand.