evidence: [1] Crisis Group interviews, Northern, Central and Western Provinces, March 2024. A national survey conducted soon after the aragalaya had largely disbanded found that more than 80 per cent of Sri Lankans agreed it was a necessary movement that had a positive impact on the country. "The Survey on Aragalaya: Topline Report", Centre for Policy Alternatives, September 2022. [...] Finally, by defanging the aragalaya, retaining the support of the SLPP and postponing elections, Wickremesinghe acquired the political leeway to introduce a series of unpopular austerity measures designed to prevent the country from falling into even more dire financial straits and prepare the ground for final approval of an IMF bailout.[3] In particular, his government took three key steps to reduce the government’s ballooning budget deficit: it increased taxes, removed subsidies that had kept fuel and electricity rates below cost and, in early 2023, imposed a 6 per cent spending cut on all government departments. Wickremesinghe’s policies were assisted by, and built on, a series of policy changes the Central Bank had adopted. While several of the bank’s measures made economic sense, such as no longer printing money to cover state expenses and ceasing to (artificially) prop up the Sri Lankan rupee’s value, in combination they contributed to a spike in prices for basic goods, generating more hardship for poor and working-class Sri Lankans.[4]