The central bank still seems to be escaping a national bankruptcy.
(Photo: Bloomberg)
Frankfurt According to its own statements, the Russian government has transferred another interest payment for a foreign currency bond to its creditors. The money due for the government bond, which runs until 2029, has been paid in full, the Ministry of Finance announced on Tuesday in Moscow. A total of $65.63 million was paid. The transfer was processed through the US bank JPMorgan Chase, an insider told Reuters news agency.
The payments are seen as a test of whether the government in Moscow can meet its international debt obligations after the West also wants to hit the Russian financial market with sanctions.
Russia, which was hit with tough Western sanctions after the invasion of Ukraine, only arranged interest payments of 117 million dollars for two other foreign currency bonds last Friday, thus averting a state bankruptcy. Had there not been a transfer, it would have been the first default since the Russian Revolution of 1917, when the Bolsheviks refused to recognize Tsarist-era debts.
Russian foreign currency bonds with a total volume of around 40 billion dollars are currently in circulation. Around half of these are held by foreign investors. Several rating agencies had recently pushed their rating for Russia’s creditworthiness deep into the junk area. However, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) considers serious consequences for the global financial system in the event of a state bankruptcy in Russia to be unlikely.
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