Economics
Venezuela’s Behind on Its Debt and Facing Two Huge Bond Payments
- Government-run oil giant PDVSA owes $985 million on Friday
- Country is already late on $350 million of interest payments
Venezuela Faces Bond Market Day of Reckoning
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Ever since the price of oil collapsed in mid-2014, there’s been a broad consensus among the bond-market crowd that Venezuela was going to default. Not immediately, they said, but at some point down the road.
Three years on, that time may have arrived. On Friday, the government-run oil giant PDVSA owes $985 million. Six days later, it’s on the hook for another $1.2 billion. Not only is that a daunting sum for a country whose foreign-currency reserves recently dipped below $10 billion for the first time in 15 years, but it figures to be a logistical nightmare too.