Puerto Rico makes December 1 debt payment

“Part of that is about $270 million where the central government of Puerto Rico has provided a guarantee”, he said. A default could trigger lawsuits, further spook investors and undermine the island’s efforts to climb out of $72 billion in debt.

SAN JUAN Nov 30 Puerto Rico’s governor Alejandro Garcia Padilla said he will decide on Monday afternoon or Tuesday morning whether to make a bond payment due December 1, following negotiations with the US territory’s Government Development Bank (GDB).

He did not say how much money would be diverted or where that money is coming from.

Garcia Padilla signed an order allowing Puerto Rico to begin redirecting certain funds in light of recently revised revenue estimates and its deteriorating liquidity situation, the island said. “It’s your choice whether to answer or disregard”. “I have to see which is best for Puerto Ricans”. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa…

Grassley asked no questions of the governor after his testimony.

Garcia and other Puerto Rico officials are scheduled to testify on the island’s economic crisis at a Tuesday hearing by the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee.

Height Securities analyst Daniel Hanson said the comments meant Puerto Rico was defaulting on “instrumentality debt, not debt with a constitutional pledge”.

“We are reduced to the role of supplicant, pleading for equal treatment, or at least more equitable treatment”, Pierluisi said.

It had to do that because, according to law, Puerto Rico can’t enter bankruptcy.

Democrats at the hearing called on Congress to act. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn. “Congress can not tell Puerto Rico to drop dead financially”.