Puerto Rico postpones its day of reckoning

摘要

Puerto Rico has bought a little more time to restructure its US$72bn debt load by making a US$354m interest payment on debt issued by its development bank that came due on December 1. The payment avoided a default that would have set off a cascade of litigation from creditors, potentially destroying any hope of a consensual restructuring. The commonwealth has been locked in talks for months with creditors to lessen its debt obligations. Nevertheless, advisers involved in the talks say a default may still be unavoidable. They say a proposal was on the table that would have delayed the US$354m debt payment and cleared the decks for an US$8bn restructuring of Puerto Rico Electric and Power Authority debt, but it was not taken up.