Puerto Rico Risking Point of No Return With Debt Payment Default
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Puerto Rico is poised to set in motion a chain of events to force investors into negotiating a restructuring of the island’s $72 billion debt burden.
The commonwealth’s Public Finance Corp. will likely fail to make $58 million in bond payments due Aug. 1, the first default since Puerto Rico was ceded to the U.S. following the Spanish-American War. Government officials say they can’t make the payment because the legislature didn’t appropriate the funds last month for the current fiscal year.