Venezuelan President Maduro says Russia may defer Venezuela’s debt repayment
President of Venezuela, Nicolas Maduro, taking part in Russian Energy Week 2017 in Moscow, discussed the possibility of another restructuring of his country's debt to Russia, as reported by RBC news agency.
"Any financial obligations to any bank or state can be restructured. We discussed this issue with our Minister of Economy and Finance. We have no difficulties, and are fulfilling our obligations to Russia. Any restructuring is likely to be the result of the governments’ agreements, so there are no problems," Maduro said, answering the question as to whether Venezuela will receive a deferral of payments to Russia.
In December 2011, Russia extended a line of credit to Venezuela for up to $4 billion to finance the purchase of weapons. By the end of 2013, Russian defense industry enterprises supplied Venezuela with products worth a total of $2.65 billion. In April 2015, it became known that Caracas received another $962 million as part of the line of credit, which increased the total debt amount to $3.6 billion.
In March 2016, Venezuela missed one payment of the loan, after which it was granted a deferral: the payment of $530 million was postponed until 2019-2021. However, in the spring of 2017, the country missed another payment of about $362 million.
At the beginning of June 2017, it became known that unfulfilled obligations of foreign borrowers to Russia amounted to $1 billion. Later, the Accounts Chamber of Russia reported that Venezuela, which failed to fulfill the terms of an intergovernmental agreement, turned out to be a careless debtor.
In early September, Russia's Finance Minister, Anton Siluanov, said that the Venezuelan authorities had asked for another restructuring of the debt.
"There was an appeal by our colleagues in Venezuela for another restructuring," the head of the agency explained, noting that "there are difficulties in fulfilling the debt," but he is still confident that "acceptable solutions" will be found.
Bloomberg reported that Venezuela had failed to pay off the government bonds on time and if it did not fulfill its obligations within a month, then the country would be in default on October 15th.