Russia debt controversy still unresolved

Russia debt controversy still unresolved



26 червня 2015 года
ICU

The classification of the US$3bn Russian Eurobond as official or private debt had another twist yesterday. During a press briefing at the IMF's Washington headquarters yesterday, Gerry Rise, an IMF spokesman, responded that Ukraine was current on its external debt after being asked about an update on its debt restructuring. Interfax-Ukraine had posted that an IMF official had denied a previous claim circulating over the last several days by FT and Bloomberg that the IMF was leaning to treat Russian debt as official public debt rather than as private debt. FT and Bloomberg referred to unnamed IMF sources for this significant new development. Our research on the issue yielded the following. Our communication via Twitter (link) with FT reporters, who initially broke the news back a few days ago and who were present at the IMF HQ press briefing, said that Gerry Rise seemed to dodge the question on the Russian bond. Interfax-Ukraine apparently jumped to the false conclusion that the IMF denied that it would treat the bond as official debt. In our view, the question and response were both quite vague and indefinite, with contrasting rumors creating more controversy and uncertainty. Natalia Jaresko, Ukraine's finance minister and top negotiator with external creditors, responded that the Fund's position did not change, implying that it would treat the Russian debt as private debt. Ukraine is currently holding a technical meeting with the private creditors' committee at the IMF headquarters next week to move negotiations forward. We believe that this meeting may produce more clarity on many issues, including this one. The Russian bond has been controversial since its inception in December 2013 and is likely to continue to be so.

Источник: ICU

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