Shocks from deadly suicide bombings on Easter Day in Sri Lanka are reverberating throughout its economy in the worst crisis since the South Asian island nation's civil war ended in 2009.
The blasts that killed more than 250 people were blamed on Islamic extremists. They have devastated Sri Lanka's vital tourism industry, source of jobs for many, and are hindering foreign investment.
Sri Lanka's economy already was in trouble, dogged by political crisis, its currency under pressure from a growing national deficit and rising debt. The attacks have added to those challenges.
Business is the worst it's been in the 60 years that Ranepura Hewage Jayasena has been doing business in the capital Colombo, where he runs a shop that sells spectacular wooden carvings, wooden elephants and clothing designed for tourisms.
"Almost 100% of my business is gone. There are days without a single sale," said Jayasena, 76, looking grief-stricken as he went through the previous days accounts.
"We had a war that raged for years, but we had good business. Bombs exploded in Colombo city itself, but that did not affect our business," he said.
"This is the worst period I have seen in my life." Seven suicide bombers struck two Catholic and one Protestant church and three luxury hotels on April 21. The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attacks, which were carried out by a local radicalized Muslim group known as National Thowheed Jammath.
Among those killed were 45 foreigners, mainly from China, India, the U.S. and Britain.
For days after the attack, many businesses remained shuttered. Tourists fled: the number of arrivals dropped more than 70 per cent from a year earlier in May and nearly 60 per cent in June.
The economy is forecast to grow at about a 3 per cent pace this year, according to Central Bank governor Indrajit Coomaraswamy, way below the 6 per cent plus average of recent years and possibly the lowest level in nearly 20 years.
The worst hit have been people, many of them self-employed, living close to the brink of poverty, economists say.
"Sri Lanka is undergoing a severe economic crisis at present and it is manifested at both the individual and national level," said W.A. Wijewardena, an economic analyst and a former deputy governor of central bank.
The blasts "surely caused a temporary setback to the economy, which was already a sick one," Wijewardena said.
While a huge share of job losses were in the tourism sector, they've rippled through many other industries.
Sanjeewa Samarasinghe, a 51-year-old father of three, began working as a marketing manager at a publishing company in June, after a long stint without a job. He was let go after just one week due to weak sales after the attacks.
"It's true sales had plunged, but look at the plight of workers. How can they live?" he said.
For K.S. Mahendran, a peddler of mobile phone accessories on a sidewalk in downtown Colombo, recovery seems as far off as the day the explosions ripped through the churches and hotels In a matter of hours, Mahendran's business collapsed, leaving him without a way to pay rent and other daily expenses.
"The attacks were a severe blow to us and almost ruined our lives," he said. "We had to borrow money from money lenders and we are in a great difficulty at the moment. No one is helping us."
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