The world is now on the brink of a financial crisis and no one can see a way out, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said yesterday, expressing his views on the foreign exchange crisis faced by the country.

The Prime Minister, addressing a medical event in Colombo said, the biggest challenge before everyone at the moment is to find a way to steer the economy through the current crisis.

The remarks came a day before the Prime Minister left for his official tours to Norway and the United Kingdom

“Some say this will persist for another few months. Some say it will be there until 2020,” the Prime Minister added.

“We don’t know what will happen when US imposes trade sanctions on Iran next month.Whenever the US dollar goes up, a poor man in a country like Sri Lanka or India is forced to pay more for his essential items,” Wickremesinghe explained.

“As a short-term measure,” the Prime Minister added, “we have to introduce ways to prevent the outflow of our money. We have to strengthen the export economy and bring more foreign exchange into the country. Exporting goods alone will not help our situation. We have to think of new ways of exporting more services.”