Wall Street Bets $1 Billion Breather Can Avert Ecuador Default
- Investors have until Friday to accept debt relief request
- Ecuador bonds are leading emerging-market losses this year
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Ecuador’s largest bondholders are likely to grant the government more time to meet debt payments as oil prices collapse and the coronavirus devastates the nation’s trade hub. They have little choice.
The delay would give President Lenin Moreno’s administration another four months to reach a longer term restructuring deal with creditors. It may be the only alternative to a messy default that would damage investor portfolios and devastate the South American nation, which has repaid just two bonds since its independence from Spain two centuries ago.