1998 was the year of a global economic meltdown. What was first perceived to be a localized currency and financial crisis in Thailand soon spread to other Asian countries as Russia and Brazil were just starting to get pulled into the vortex. Economy after economy entered free-fall, and international stock markets, from New York to Tokyo, crashed.
 
Sri Lanka—having just completed fifty years of independence from colonialism and despite a raging civil war—seemed to have miraculously evaded this crisis. “Not only did it avoid contagion—there was no panic and there was no crash”, stated the 1998 State of the Economy report by the Institute of Policy Studies. The government at the time presented this as a mark of its clever economic management while the opposition debated that the security was peripheral and largely due to the strong human development front developed over the decades with factors like high life expectancy and adult literacy rate.
 
This retro poster announces a political and economic conference taking place at this interesting point in the world financial history. Titled ‘වත්මන් ආර්ථිකයේ සැබෑ මුහුණුවර’, or ‘The real face of the current economy’, it was an event that probably tried to shed light on the strings that held Sri Lanka together during a global meltdown. What we love the most about it, is the fantastic choice in type and colours. 
 
✺ 24” L x 19” W