Maduro moves to restructure Venezuela’s US$120b foreign debt
VENEZUELA’S PRESIDENT says his socialist government will begin restructuring a foreign debt estimated at more than US$120 billion, saying United States financial sanctions are crippling the oil-dependent economy’s ability to pay.
But President Nicolas Maduro also indicated that he wanted to avoid a fight with international lenders. He ordered state-run oil company PDVSA to make one last US$1.1 billion bond payment in full on Friday before the country launches its effort to ease future foreign payments.
“I decree a refinancing and a restructuring of all external debt and all of Venezuela’s payments,” Maduro said in a nationally broadcast address Thursday.
Venezuela’s economy has contracted more than 35 per cent since 2014, a sharper fall than the US suffered during the Great Depression, and Maduro’s government has found itself forced to choose between paying foreign creditors and helping a population ravaged by triple-digit inflation and widespread food and medicine shortages.
Until now, Venezuela has gone out of its way to honour its debts, finding new funds from ally Russia and disproving critics who long predicted a default. But financial sanctions announced in August by the Trump administration banning US investors from lending new funds to Venezuela has made it harder to maintain the delicate balance.
‘GLOBAL FINANCIAL PERSECUTION’
Many banks and financial institutions now refuse to handle the government’s payments, for fear, it could damage their reputations. In May, Goldman Sachs experienced a major backlash after it made a big purchase of so-called “hunger bonds” from Venezuela that paid a huge return, but opened it up to accusations it was profiting from Venezuela’s misery.
“We have had to face a real global financial persecution,” Maduro said.
The president said Venezuela has paid US$72 billion to debt holders since he came to power in 2013 despite a precipitous fall in oil income for the OPEC nation.
Under the late President Hugo Chavez, the government went on a borrowing binge as oil prices that were around just US$10 a barrel when he took office in 1999 soared to over US$140, giving investors confidence they would be paid back from the nation sitting atop the
MADURO
world’s largest oil reserves. But as oil prices have fallen, the few risk-seeking investors willing to keep lending to Venezuela have been demanding astronomically high interest rates.The country now has more than US$120 billion in external debt, about half of which is in the form of dollar-denominated bonds, according to brokerage Caracas Capital.
To lead the debt renegotiation process Maduro named Vice-President Tareck El Aissami, who faces US sanctions of his own over allegations of being a major drug trafficker. He has dismissed the accusations as baseless and an attempt to undermine Maduro’s rule.
Members of the opposition, who for months have criticised Maduro for prioritising debt payments, nonetheless slammed his proposal to reverse course.
“Maduro can’t restructure the debt because nobody in the world trusts his government,” said National Assembly President Julio Borges, who previously letters to Wall Street banks urging them to cut off the government over human rights abuses committed during months of protests.
LULA
EU reforms by creating a larger Caribbean market into which industries could sell sugar at a price that is viable. They also suggest that a regional market for sugar would make the industry attractive again to investors.
Balancing the interests of sugar, a large rural employer, with those of much smaller but significant domestic manufacturers is likely to prove challenging.
If what is proposed is to work, it will need the four CARICOM countries concerned, the sometimes-fractious sugar industry, and the food and soft drink manufacturers to jointly recognise the benefits that could flow from integration, and the practical steps required to achieve this.
In the long term, if the ideas about to be considered can be made to work, it will confirm that the CARICOM Single Market and Economy is rather more than just an interesting idea. In the short term, however, the challenge will be for COTED to determine how best to encourage convergence, while not damaging the interests of any of the parties concerned.
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